Darwin Harbour Habitat Mapping Program: Video annotation

Full description

This resource contains a video annotation record for the greater Darwin Harbour region as part of a baseline habitat mapping program for the Darwin Harbour region (including Bynoe Harbour) through offset funds provided by INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project to Northern Territory Government’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NTG-DENR) and co-investment from Geoscience Australia (GA), Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The intent of this program is to improve knowledge of the marine environments in the Darwin and Bynoe Harbour regions by collating and collecting baseline data that enable the creation of thematic habitat maps that underpin marine resource management decisions. The video annotation record was derived from a compilation of multiple surveys undertaken by GA, AIMS and NTG-DENR between 2011 and 2017, including GA0333 (Siwabessy et al., 2015), GA0341 (Siwabessy et al., 2015), GA0351/SOL6187 (Siwabessy et al., 2016), GA4452/SOL6432 (Siwabessy et al., 2017), GA0356 (Radke et al., 2017), and GA0358 and GA0359 (Radke et al., 2018).

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: asNeeded

Statement: Between September and December 2017 143 towed video transects were undertaken during neap tides. A spatially balanced, unequal inclusion probabilities habitat survey design using GRTS (Generalized Random Tessellation; Stevens & Olsen 2004) was employed to allocate the starting points for towed video transects for Darwin Harbour and Bynoe Harbour. A Seabotix LBV 150 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Geo Oceans Towed Video system was used to collect video and still images of the seafloor. All the transects were typically 1.5 km long and laid from shallow to deep water to capture the gradient of biological communities. The video system was towed generally at speeds between 1 and 2 knots, approximately 1 m above the ground and tilted downward to cover the immediate benthos. The video signal was transferred to the surface via an umbilical cable where it was monitored and analysed in real-time using dedicated Go VisionsTM software, time-stamped and synchronised with the boat’s GPS data that were recorded and 1 s intervals. The live video-feed was annotated according to predetermined classification scheme, based on the CATAMI classification scheme (http://catami.org/classification) into a relational database. The data was quality controlled by benthic ecologist at a later stage and exported to a flat table as an excel spreadsheet and csv text file. These data were used to model predictive habitat maps based on broad community types (see further information: https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127389; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127214; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127221; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127228; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127204; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127234; https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/127242).