Abstract
Marine environmental monitoring is undertaken to provide evidence that environmental management targets are being met. Moreover, monitoring also provides context to marine science and over the last century has allowed development of a critical scientific understanding of the marine environment and the impacts that humans are having on it. The seas around the UK are currently monitored by targeted, impact-driven, programmes (e.g. fishery or pollution based monitoring) often using traditional techniques, many of which have not changed significantly since the early 1900s. The advent of a new wave of automated technology, in combination with changing political and economic circumstances, means that there is currently a strong drive to move towards a more refined, efficient, and effective way of monitoring. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualise the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. Furthermore, we discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme.
Highlights
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has one of the largest coastlines in Europe and maintains stewardship of around 860 thousand square kilometers of neighboring sea bed; this is ∼3.5 times that of the total land area (Table S1; 1)
It highlights the necessity of finding a balance between activities that: (i) contribute to economic development; (ii) have an impact upon the health of the marine environment; (iii) help maintain ecosystem health; and (iv) may hamper commercial or recreational human activities
The government agency vessels are primarily used for fisheries research and marine monitoring classified as “Sustaining and increasing ecosystem benefits,” with an additional 20% of the time for ecosystem function research
Summary
Malcolm 2, Paul McIlwaine 2, Nathan D. Merchant 2, Lucille Paltriguera 2, David J. Stebbing 1, Bryony Townhill 2, Suzanne Ware 2, Oliver Williams 2 and David Righton 2*. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualize the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. We discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme
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