NIWA - Metadata Catalogue
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NIWA was commissioned to survey the six spat sites and the surrounding area of Marine Farms in Wainui, Golden Bay, to assess the ecological effects of the existing farms. Although record in 2007, hydrodynamic modelling was not undertaken in this survey. The rationale for this was previous modelling, assuming full production mussel farms, showed only minor effects on phytoplankton filtration and benthic deposition. The effects of spat farms producing very small mussels up to 15 mm in length before being removed, would be significantly less, and unlikely to be measurable within natural seasonal variability. The methodology and results of the previous hydrodynamic modelling are summarised in this report, however, for the sake of completeness.
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Seabed sampling of the nearshore region of the STB was conducted during a 3-day field survey undertaken from the 28th February to the 2nd March 2013. Seabed habitats were characterised at 36 sites (26 nearshore sites and 10 cross-shelf sites), using underwater video footage and still images (photo-quadrats). Representative habitats were then sampled using a benthic grab for surficial sediments and a benthic dredge to collect surficial macrobenthic specimens. Ninety-two percent of the seabed along the nearshore region of the STB was characterised by extensive soft-sediments that supported few macrobenthic organisms. The remaining 8% of the seabed (five sites) comprised hard substratum in the form of either low to moderate relief hard rock (6%) or variable relief mudstone (2%) outcrops. In contrast to mudstone outcrops, which supported low or negligible amounts of macrobenthos, hard rock outcrops supported abundant and diverse assemblages, with the two dredges sampled at Site 5 and 6 accounting for more than 25% of all specimens and 61% of all species collected during the survey.