Mapping of seafloor debris in intertidal seagrass, Solent Maritime SAC.
Abstract
This report identifies and maps the marine debris in the intertidal areas of the Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This has been achieved through a digital walkover of the entire intertidal area of the Solent Maritime SAC using high-resolution imagery captured by APEM in Summer 2022. Overall, 568 debris items were identified covering a total area of 37,307.42 m2. The most frequent category found was tyres (221), abandoned structures (112) and scrap metal (58). However, the largest area covered by debris was from abandoned structures (23,021.77 m2), fly-tip (9,409.03 m2) and abandoned boats (2,347.33 m2). The removability of debris varied greatly, with 78 objects classed as Grade 1 and 145 as Grade 11. There was 839 anchor pressure points identified in the digital walkover and the total area impacted by these was recorded as 242,953 m2.