AquaBiota was commissioned by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SWaM) and the county administrative board of Gävleborg to survey the seafloor of Kalmar, Gotland, Östergötland, Södermanland, Stockholm and Gävleborg counties. In total, 1382 drop video stations, 622 grab sampling stations and 130 snorkelling and diving locations were sampled.
Diving transect in Gävleborg county
The surveys are part of the SWaM national marine mapping program (NMK), which aims to produce maps of biological components for the entire Swedish coast. The Gävleborg survey also aims to produce information for monitoring and suggestions of new marine protected areas. Currently work on interpretation of videos and quality control is ongoing. As soon as the data is finalized, and quality checked, it will be available through the national data host SMHI. In the coming months, fully covering maps of marine species and habitats will be produced using distribution modelling.
Grab sampling of the seafloor
Video recording and data collection with mobile app
Sampled stations 2018. Bottenhugg = grab sampling, Dropvideo = drop video, Snorkling = snorkelling.