IMOS - AUV SIRIUS CAMPAIGN: WESTERN AUSTRALIA, APRIL 2010

Temperate WA (Kendrick, Babcock, Smale): A cruise was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Western Australian and CSIRO to document benthic assemblages on temperate reefs off the coast of Western Australia in April, 2010. This cruise was the first in a 3 year series of IMOS AUV Facility cruises intended to establish a benthic habitat timeseries along the Eastern and Western coasts of Australia. The expectation is that these surveys will be repeated annually for at least the next two years. Surveys were conducted off Rottnest Island, Jurien Bay, and the Abrolhos Islands. Six sites were surveyed at each location spanning three depths (15 m, 25 m, 40 m), both inside and outside MPAs, with three 25 m x 25 m full photo coverage quadrants devoted to each site. Site locations targeted kelp beds and were provided by the science party. The locations of individual quadrants within each site were decided on‐site, based on bathymetric or depth sounder information. Additional scientific operations carried out during the cruise consisted of CTD casts, HOBO logger equipped moorings deployments, and SCUBA.