Pobie Bank Reef Still Imagery Analysis 0923S

Overview

Project Aims JNCC wishes to commission a contract to undertake the analysis of seabed still imagery collected on the 0923S survey from a drop-frame camera. Seabed imagery will be analysed using the image annotation software BIIGLE. During 0923S imagery data was collected for both MPA monitoring, and ground truthing purposes. The total number of sampled drop camera monitoring stations was 97 and the total number of images after filtering to ensure 40 good quality images per station is 3,880. Analysis of 10 groundtruthing stations with 383 images is to be included as a costed extra only, however the total cost including costed extras must not exceed the stated value of the contract. More detailed metadata will be provided including information from logs and the survey report. Representative images from each station from the 0923S survey are shown in Annex C, and the successful contractor will be provided with access to the 2023 BIIGLE project, the annotated 2023 PBR video imagery and the 2020 PBR seabed imagery to aid with identification. 3. Project Background JNCC and Marine Directorate (MD) conducted a survey aboard MRV Scotia (0923S) in 2023 to gather evidence to monitor Pobie Bank Reef SAC (PBR) (Figure 1) and inform assessment of the extent and condition of the designated features of the site. This is the second monitoring survey in a repeat timeseries at PBR, three years after the first survey in 2020, and aims to generate comparable results to make long-term conclusions about the condition of the site. PBR is located in the North Sea approximately 20 km east of the Shetland Islands. The site has an area of 966 km2 and a depth ranging of 70 m to 100 m. The designated features of PBR are listed in Table 1. More information on PBR can be found in the JNCC SIC https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/pobie-bank-reef-mpa/. The 0923S survey departed from Aberdeen on the 23rd July 2023 and returned to Aberdeen on the 4th August 2023. This survey forms the Time 1 (T1) repeat survey in the PBR timeseries, following on from T0 in 2020. The monitoring aims and objectives relating to seabed imagery are: 1. Collect evidence to inform Type 1 (sentinel) monitoring of the physical and biological structure and function relating to Annex 1 Reef at Pobie Bank Reef SAC 2. Collect evidence to inform the physical extent and distribution of the Annex 1 Reef within Pobie Bank Reef SAC 3. Collect evidence to inform the physical extent and distribution of the Annex 1 Reef outside the proposed fisheries management measures in Pobie Bank Reef SAC Imagery was collected with a drop-frame camera (DC) system, towed by the vessel at a target speed of 0.5 knots and a target altitude of 1 m. The following instruments were mounted on the drop-frame camera: • Kongsberg OE 14-408 digital stills camera (10 MP) mounted in a planar (downwards facing) orientation • High definition SubC 1 Alpha video camera in a planar orientation • Four-point (green) laser-scaling with the bottom two set to 67 mm spacing • Additionally: four SEALED lamps, Valeport CTD, Ultra-short Baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning beacon During 0923S, 107 camera sampling stations were visited (Figure 1), including the monitoring and groundtruthing stations. In total, 3,880 still images (40 per station) from the 97 monitoring stations will be analysed. Analysis of the 10 groundtruthing stations is included as a costed extra only (see section 4.4). All imagery will be made available for analysis via a BIIGLE project. Access to the imagery via the BIIGLE can be provided on request to aid in the tendering process (see contacts for technical information on page 1) and more detailed metadata will be provided to the successful contractor following contract award. Figure 1: Locations of camera stations sampled at Pobie Bank Reef SAC during 0923S The following will be supplied to the successful contractor: 1. Access to 2023 BIIGLE project with all stills and label trees. 2. 2020 and 2023 PBR cruise reports (