Southern Surveyor Voyage SS 03/2008 data backups and documentation: LTO Data Backups (location): - SS200803 SS2 Final Backup copy 2 (Sent to Hiski Kippo, CSIRO Floreat Marine Laboratories, Apr 22, 2008) - SS200803 SS2 Final Backup copy 3 (Hobart Marine Labs, Block1, Data Centre MNF Media Cabinet) - SS200803 SS-User Final Backup copy 2 (Hobart Marine Labs, Block 3, Remote Sensing Compactus, Datacenre archive box 2) - SS200803 SWATH Final copy 2 (Hobart Marine Labs, Block1, Data Centre MNF Media Cabinet) Paper Records: Bridge Logs (20pp) CTD Log Sheets (14pp) Computing Logs (16pp) All paper records have been scanned to PDF and are available via links in ths record. These documents are archived at Hobart Marine Labs, Block1, Data Centre compactus, Southern Surveyor archive box 2008-1, and logged in Trim Context. - Trim References: Container: AB2008/1040 Folder: C2008/6913 - On-line Documentation: - SS200803_BridgeLogs.pdf - SS200803_ComputingCheckLists.pdf - SS200803_CTDlogs.pdf - SS200803_EM300_Logs.pdf - SS200803_UWY_ADCP_Report.pdf - SS200803ComputingReport.pdf - SS200803plan.pdf - Links in this record will work for PROCESSING STAFF ONLY. Scientific staff may request copies via data-requests-hf@csiro.au. Documentation is on the internal network: \processedVoyageData [voyage] \global_docs. The raw data will be archived by the CSIRO Data Access Portal in 2015.

Benthic biota samples were taken in the Great Australian Bight (GAB) and near St Helen's Hill seamount during the pilot survey for estimating the effectiveness of spatial closures for deepwater gulper sharks and associated fishery species. There are large gaps in ecological knowledge of gulper sharks which limit the effective design of area closures (e.g. optimising sizes and numbers) and assessment of their performance. The survey aimed to fill these gaps do this by characterising the habitats and ecosystem processes in 200-700 m depths that sustain key species, and commencing a process to determine the relevant aspects of species ecology. Primarily this will be (1) to measure the movement of fish within and to/ from a large closed area in the GAB with a tagging program, and (2) estimate the abundance of selected species in relation to habitat features (substructure within submarine canyons, escarpments and rocky banks, and adjacent water column features) with two independent, non-extractive photographic methods. This metadata record describes the benthic biota samples taken at during this survey. Epibenthic biota were collected using epibenthic sled (5 ops) and macro-infauna were extracted by elutriation of sediment collections taken using the Smith-MacIntyre grab (13 ops). The invertebrate specimens were distributed to Museum collections for registration and curation. Data on specimen identifications by taxonomic experts are tracked, collated and archived at the CSIRO.

Towed camera transects were conducted in the Great Australian Bight (GAB) and near St Helen's Hill seamount during the pilot survey for estimating the effectiveness of spatial closures for deepwater gulper sharks and associated fishery species. There are large gaps in ecological knowledge of gulper sharks which limit the effective design of area closures (e.g. optimising sizes and numbers) and assessment of their performance. The survey aimed to fill these gaps do this by characterising the habitats and ecosystem processes in 200-700 m depths that sustain key species, and commencing a process to determine the relevant aspects of species ecology. Primarily this will be (1) to measure the movement of fish within and to/ from a large closed area in the GAB with a tagging program, and (2) estimate the abundance of selected species in relation to habitat features (substructure within submarine canyons, escarpments and rocky banks, and adjacent water column features) with two independent, non-extractive photographic methods. This metadata record refers to the image data collected during the survey. The image annotations collected for this project will 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'.