Three leading UK research organisations are spearheading a new programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), called MAREMAP (MARine Environmental MApping Programme). The programme, a collaboration between the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), was publicly launched on 23 June 2010 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. It aims to integrate NERC funding in marine mapping into a coherent programme designed to meet the current and future needs of UK science, government and industry. MAREMAP plans to tackle the urgent requirement for increased mapping coverage along with detailed geological and habitat maps of the UK Marine Area, to better inform policy on topical issues such as effective conservation of marine habitats and species, sustainable exploitation of natural resources, and identification and assessment of submarine hazards. The University of Southampton and Channel Coastal Observatory are partners in the first phase of the programme, and discussions are already underway with other organisations to ensure that MAREMAP acts as a focal point for UK marine mapping beyond the NERC community.

Experienced Staff
MAREMAP will apply a uniquely multi-disciplinary approach to marine mapping, incorporating geology and geophysics, biology, oceanography, hydrography and technology. This approach requires large teams of experienced sea-going scientists and technical support staff, which are already present in the host science centres.

The programme will have several key themes, including 1) geological and habitat mapping from the coast to the deep sea, 2) mapping of submarine hazards and archaeological/heritage sites, 3) investigating how seafloor environments change through time (4D mapping), and 4) use of innovative technology and techniques in marine mapping. In addition to collecting new data, the MAREMAP team will work on existing bathymetric maps and other legacy datasets to produce free-to-access products such as seafloor habitat maps and 3D geological models.

Major Surveys
MAREMAP is underway, with a number of major surveys off the UK this summer. This month (May) sees the return to port of the RRS James Cook which has been undertaking surveying, coring and drilling along the west of Scotland and Northern Ireland. On board were geologists, oceanographers and hydrographers from BGS, SAMS and NOC. They were collecting samples to enable more accurate geological maps and interpretations to be produced. Recently collected multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) data by the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) was indispensable to the success of the operation as the high-resolution bathymetry data gives incredible new value to legacy datasets and allows for more accurate planning of survey and sampling sites.

Long (10 metre) soft sediment cores were collected from the Sea of Hebrides to investigate the sedimentary history of seabed features that were created by glaciers over the last two million years. The Sea of Hebrides is an area of complex seafloor bathymetry (Figure right) occurring west of the Isles of Rum, Muck, Eigg and Canna (Inner Hebrides) on the UK continental shelf, western Scotland. This area has experienced multiple glaciations being overridden by ice sheets on numerous occasions throughout the Quaternary. The seabed morphology of the shelf is predisposed by the complex structures of pre-Quaternary geology, and modified (often severely) by glacial and modern marine processes. The Sea of Hebrides has been suggested as the location of an ancient fast-flowing ice sheet termed the ‘Minch Ice Stream' after its origins between Skye and the Outer Hebrides. After glaciation, higher recent sea levels and fast tidal currents have reworked sediment and transported older relict glacial deposits. Using combined existing MBES surveys from the SAMS, BGS, UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and St Andrews University, geologists are able to target sites to help examine the timing and influence of the ice sheet.

SAMS, based at the Scottish Marine Institute in western Scotland has equipped the research vessel R/V Calanus (figure at the top) with a Reson 8124 Seabat MBES in addition to a Klein 3000 dual frequency side-scan sonar. Though one of the oldest oceanographic institutes in the world, established in 1876, hydrographic survey expertise is a new addition to our capability. Through the MAREMAP partnership large datasets can be produced and an upcoming project aims to complete detailed hydrographic surveys of western Scotland and Northern Ireland. In collaboration with the MCA and UKHO, ‘Inis Hydro' is an EU-funded inter-regional project following on the successful JIBS (Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey) programme. Partners include the Northern Lighthouse Board, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Geological Survey of Ireland and the Marine Institute, Galway.

Unsurveyed Coastline
BGS has invested in a new vessel, the White Ribbon (Figure in the middle). This has been developed specifically to survey inshore waters where traditional survey vessels cannot operate, the so-called white ribbon of unsurveyed coastline. The vessel is a 7.9m Cheetah Marine catamaran, equipped with a unique Hydropod system, housing a Kongsberg EM3002 Dual Head MBES. Recent surveys undertaken include Loch Lomond, Lake Windermere and Loch Eriboll, with continuing survey work on the local waters of the Firth of Forth. The White Ribbon has recently upgraded to Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS provided by the Trimble VRS network, enabling the use of the Vertical Offshore Reference Frame (VORF) tidal model giving the capacity for real-time tidal correction of data whilst at sea. The White Ribbon is a diverse package with the proven ability to perform seismic and magnetometer surveys with the potential for ROV and side-scan sonar operations.

This unique collaboration will begin to provide new data and new interpretations into the geological and oceanographic evolution of the UK continental shelf. As belt-tightening on public funding continues, partnerships such as MAREMAP lead the way in being an effective and economic way to survey and interpret hydrographic data.