This dataset was created to document the scoring of a camera tow from SS2007/02 SE MPA's survey Specifically, the camera tow on Hill Patience, to derive data from the tow relating to the number of basket work eels observed. To collect this data, video footage from SS2007/02 SE MPA's camera tow on Patience Hill was observed on a monitor screen with lines marked on it - the video was stopped every five seconds, and marine fauna within the marked lines were counted, with the marked lines used in order to prevent double counting of the animals. This data was recorded in an excel spreadsheet, with a list of the different species recorded and the timecodes that they were recorded at. This data was then used in conjuction with other data from station 54 relating to the depth and structure of the seafloor, in order to determine any relation between marine life numbers and the surrounding habitat.

The overall aims were to provide data on the distribution of deep seabed habitats and fauna that are amenable to scientific hypothesis testing, can be immediately applied to marine resource management processes, and that enable strategic development of tools and techniques for understanding the processes that maintain deep sea biodiversity. This work was to support the process of NWR Estate inventory and management performance assessment by providing interpreted benthic habitat maps, faunal inventories, distribution maps and conservation values. Data will be collected at scientific reference sites from potential MPA areas that can be re-visited for monitoring purposes in the future. Sampling along environmental gradients (geographic range and depth) in this section of Australia's coast will also provide the opportunity to evaluate biogeographic hypotheses. Further refinement of predictive methods for identifying seabed habitat types, initially developed in temperate and cool-temperate environments, will be enabled by data collection from this tropical location in Australia. We intended to highlight the importance of this underlying science as a modern "Voyage of Discovery" given the likely significance of the findings in terms of Australia's biodiversity and its biogeography and evolution. (From Voyage Plan). Sediment samples were divided into two samples: an elutrition sample for macroinvertebrates that was sent to Robin Wilson at MV for analysis and a sediment sample to be analysed by Geoscience Australia.

Australia has gazetted an ambitious national network of Commonwealth Marine Reserves that includes the iconic Huon and Tasman Fracture reserves off Tasmania where seamounts (‘undersea mountains’) support unique deep-water coral reefs. These reefs rank among the most bio-diverse globally. Protection of deep-water coral reefs is a high-priority conservation concern nationally and internationally because deep-water corals are very fragile, easily impacted by human activities including bottom trawling, and are believed to recover very slowly. These corals may also be highly vulnerable to climate change because projected changes in water chemistry could limit the ability of corals to build calcareous skeletons. Despite these concerns, and Australia’s significant investment in marine conservation, several fundamental ecological issues remain to be evaluated. These include defining the spatial extent of deep-sea coral communities inside and outside the Tasmanian reserves, and evaluating the resilience of the communities to bottom trawling. This information is important to understanding the dynamics of deep-sea communities globally, and for developing and implementing conservation management plans. The survey aboard RV Investigator set out to determine the spatial extents of deep-sea coral communities in and adjacent to the Huon and Tasman Fracture reserves, and quantify changes in the communities by comparing samples taken in 2018 to samples taken, using similar methods, in 2007 and 1997. There was supplementary sampling on the heavily trawled St. Helens Seamount which was surveyed in 2008. This metadata record refers to the image data collected during the survey. The imagery collected for this project have been registered to the 2018 incidence of the CSIRO VARS database, where annotations have been added. The annotations collected for this project have also been linked to the Oracle data base BHIMAGE and the associated videos and still images have been archived as described in MarLIN record 14436 'Benthic Habitats Video Image Archive'.

This record describes the benthic assemblage survey data collected as part of the Tasmanian Seamounts Study undertaken by CSIRO Division of Fisheries in January 1997. 34 benthic dredge tows were made on the top, slope and base of 14 seamounts in the survey area, approx. 100 km to the south of Tasmania, using a specially constructed dredge, in water depths ranging from 600m to approx. 2000m. Numerous (>200) invertebrate taxa were recovered representing hydroids, octocorals, polychaetes, bryozoa, bivalve molluscs, cephalopods, barnacles, isopods, decapod crustaceans, crinoids, asteroids, echiuroids, holothurians, hydrozoans, brachiopods, chitons, gastropods, sponges, and other minor groups. The data have been analysed with respect to depth, fishing history (lightly or heavily fished areas), and position on the seamount, and two main community types documented, one dominated by living colonial coral (Solenosmilia variabilis) and one by echinoids (sea urchins). Many of the species found are new records for Australia and a number are new to science. The specimens of select taxa from this survey were re-examined to enable comparison of this survey to two surveys conducted in in the same area in 2006/7 (SS11/2006 & SS02/2007). Identification were upgraded and specimens compared to the new collections by museum experts and integrated into the data. To date (Sept. 2014) we are aware of 20 taxonomic revisions or descriptions that have been published using material from this collection.

This voyage provides an opportunity to test and refine optimal techniques to map and assess seabed habitat developed in a previous CMR project (NOO OP2000-SE02). Importantly, this voyage will use the National Facility's high-resolution EM300 swath mapper for its first program of biological and physical habitat mapping. The sampling locations are a number of submarine canyons and their immediately adjacent flanks on the west coast of Tasmania and east of Bass Strait. These are prime targets for our methods development because each canyon area is characterised by a great variety of seabed topography and benthic communities concentrated in a relatively small area (< 300 sq km). This voyage is also an opportunity to apply the data collected to marine resource management planning in the South East Region. Submarine canyons represent a type of habitat unit (Level 3 biogeomorphic units) having a strong influence on the location of offshore Marine Protected Areas on the continental slope and rise, and many are likely to be biodiversity hotspots. Several canyons are also the locations of the largest known aggregations of feeding and spawning fishes in the South-East Fishery region, and these support a range of intense, increasing and, in places, conflicting fishing activities. Given the immediate and increasing relevance of submarine canyons to conservation and fishery managers, it is then surprising to realize that virtually all those in the SE region remain unsampled by scientists, and are named only by commercial fishers. For these reasons, sampling on this voyage will focus on the Big Horseshoe Canyon mapped previously with the EM1002 and EM12 swath instruments (to enable comparison of data types, and to investigate temporal persistence of features), and several new areas. Mark Lewis has videos recorded on voyage and photographs of deck shots & equipment used during the trip.

The overall aims were to provide data on the distribution of deep seabed habitats and fauna that are amenable to scientific hypothesis testing, can be immediately applied to marine resource management processes, and that enable strategic development of tools and techniques for understanding the processes that maintain deep sea biodiversity. This work was to support the process of NWR Estate inventory and management performance assessment by providing interpreted benthic habitat maps, faunal inventories, distribution maps and conservation values. Data will be collected at scientific reference sites from potential MPA areas that can be re-visited for monitoring purposes in the future. Sampling along environmental gradients (geographic range and depth) in this section of Australia's coast will also provide the opportunity to evaluate biogeographic hypotheses. Further refinement of predictive methods for identifying seabed habitat types, initially developed in temperate and cool-temperate environments, will be enabled by data collection from this tropical location in Australia. We intended to highlight the importance of this underlying science as a modern "Voyage of Discovery" given the likely significance of the findings in terms of Australia's biodiversity and its biogeography and evolution. (From Voyage Plan) This record describes the biological samples taken during the survey. Fishes were lodges in the CSIRO Fish collection, invertebrate specimens were photographed and distributed to Australian museums for identification by taxonomists, focusing on sponges, corals, echinoderms, ascidians, molluscs and crustaceans. To date (as per Dec 2016) we are aware of 27 manuscripts of taxonomic revisions and/or descriptions that have used material collected from this survey.

This record describes the photographic transect survey data collected as part of the Tasmanian Seamounts Study undertaken by CSIRO Division of Fisheries in January 1997. Ten photographic transects were made from the base to pinnacle of 4 out of 14 seamounts in the survey area, approx. 100 km to the south of Tasmania, using a Photosea 2000 stereoscopic deepsea camera system, in water depths ranging from 2180 m to 714 m. The transects were typically oriented N-S and E-W on each seamount, with 2 transects replicated. Between 67 and 150 photos were taken per transect, at a mean range between photos of 27 m, at heights of 1 to 4 m off the bottom. The photographs were later assessed for percent cover by a range of bottom types, and for numbers of recognisable organisms of particular types. In 2008/09 the slide images were scanned and re-assessed for fauna and sediment types for comparison with image data collected on voyages SS11 / 2006 and SS2/2007. The image annotations collected for this project have been added to the Oracle data base BHIMAGE and the associated videos and still images have been archived as described in MarLIN record 14436 'Benthic Habitats Video Image Archive'.