As part of the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme (CMEP) Cefas collected
212 drop camera video tows of the seabed off the western coast of St. Lucia in
the Caribbean. The purpose was to characterise the benthic fauna within the
area and support the creation of benthic habitat maps for four key areas of
the island (Rodney Bay, Castries to Marigot Bay, Soufriere and Vieux Fort).
The videos and still images were acquired using a lightweight drop camera
frame with a Bowtech high definition video camera, Olympus Mark III stills
camera, two lasers for scaling images and additional lighting for real colour
images of the seabed. The drop camera frame was lowered to the seabed by hand
from a vessel, with the video monitored to maintain a consistent height above
the seabed. Tows were 15 minutes long with the vessel drifting in neutral so
the distance covered in each tow varied. Sample depths ranged from 4-80 m and
covered a range of habitats including bare sediment, seagrass, and coral and
sponge dominated reefs. Still images were acquired every 10 seconds based on
an automated timer. Only a limited number of the still images were processed
for the creation of the seabed maps, however, all images have been retained in
this data holding.
