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Epibenthic Scattering Project: Design of field operation gear and project summary 4. Future work Future work falls into two categories: (i) further processing of the existing data set; and (ii) expansion of the project, as described in section 2 of this report and in Coastal CRC Milestone Report CA6.05. Further processing of existing data Funding options The PhD thesis work of Mr Y.-T. Tseng continues past the official closure of the Coastal Zone CRC. His work will be reported in the PhD thesis listed in the references and possibly in other publications. Processing of ESP data to date has focussed on the development of improved classification techniques, but there are many other possible uses for the data. In particular, the original ESP objectives included the development of methods to extract biologically significant parameters such as seagrass canopy height, biomass, and transpiration rate from acoustic data. The feasibility of extracting this information from the data set has not been fully explored to date, and this is recommended to be the focus of further work on the existing data. Such a study would be of suitable duration and complexity to be accomplished through a PhD project. Several funding options are being actively explored to fund the continuation of the ESP work. A research proposal has been submitted to the Australian Institute of Marine Science that coordinates planning of the Ningaloo Research Program to be implemented in 2006–2010 for the Office of Science and Innovation of the Western Australian Department of the Premier and Cabinet. The proposed project titled ‘Application of acoustic methods to habitat mapping and biodiversity assessment’ aims at acoustic characterisation and mapping of seafloor habitats off the fringing reef in the Ningaloo marine park using bathymetry and backscatter data from multi- and single-beam sonar surveys. The techniques planned to employ are based on the methods developed within the Coastal Water Habitat Mapping project of the Coastal CRC, including those examined 20
Epibenthic Scattering Project: Design of field operation gear and project summary in the ESP. The project cost proposed is $364 000 of which $60 000 was allocated for acoustic work. The decision on the overall research plan of the Ningaloo project and final selection of the particular projects to be implemented within the program have not made yet, but seafloor mapping with a single-beam sonar has already been conducted in the first complex survey in April 2006 and the first set of acoustic backscatter data from the Ningaloo marine park has been collected. It is most likely that the proposed acoustic project will be included, either entirely or partly, in the complete Ningaloo research, and acoustic surveys will be continued in the next stages of the this program. Several other funding options may be available to CMST for purchasing hardware, such as the BioSonics system, which may be of use across several projects. Two examples of such projects include the monitoring of krill in the Perth Canyon and a future WA Fisheries / Fisheries Research and Development Corporation project studying bight-redfish, a deep-water commercial fish species found off southern Western Australia. While these programs on their own would not provide sufficient funds for the specific project hardware discussed here, they would contribute to the pool of funds available for hardware purchases. The ESP work does not require dedicated access to a sounder system hence a collective purchase would reduce the funds needed to continue the project work. 21
Page 1: Photo: Gary Kendrick,UniversityofWe
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