The survey was done as a pilot study for the future monitoring of the area in a three year rolling programme. A comparison was made with an earlier survey by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (Kay and Knights 1975), for any changes in the benthic ecology. Sampling was undertaken from a boat in August 1985, with the exception of sites 1-5, 40 and 41 which were accessed by foot from the shore. Samples were taken with a corer of 6.5cm internal diameter, 15cm deep and a surface area of 33.2cm. Three replicates were taken at each site resulting in an area of 99.5cmsq. Each sample was put through a 0.5mm seive. The survey concluded that the condition of the macroinvertebrate benthos compares favourably with that of other estuaries in the area, and classes the river as clean. The study recomended monitoring of the apparent shift from a mollusc dominated community to a polychaete dominated community. No data was recorded from sites 20 and 23 in the survey report.
