The Marine Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (MALSF) commissioned a series of Regional Environmental Characterisation (REC) surveys via the Marine Environment Protection Fund (MEPF) to develop understanding of submerged habitats and heritage in Britain. The aim was to acquire high quality data to enable broad scale characterisation of the seabed habitats, their biological communities and potential historic environment assets. The surveys were conducted in the following areas - Outer Bristol Chanel (2003 – 2005), Eastern English Channel (2005 – 2006), South Coast (2007 - 2010), Outer Thames (2007), East Coast (2008 - 2009), Humber (2008 - 2009). The Geology and Geophysics component of the data are archived by British Geological Survey (BGS) in the Marine Environmental data and Information Network (MEDIN) Data Archive Centre (DAC) for Geology and Geophysics. The data includes bathymetry, sidescan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, magnetometer, seabed video and photographs, Particle Size Analysis (PSA) data, vibrocore (logs and images). Data are delivered via the BGS Offshore GeoIndex www.bgs.ac.uk/GeoIndex/offshore.htm. Additional data are available on request enquiries@bgs.ac.uk. Other data types have been archived with the other MEDIN DACs as appropriate (UKHO DAC for bathymetry data and DASSH DAC for biological data). The MALSF ceased operation at the end of March 2011 (http://www.marinealsf.org.uk/).
