Iceberg "gouges" colonised by subsea worms, sensitive fish spawning grounds and five-metre high sand dunes are among features charted in an international marine mapping project involving Irish scientists.
Final outcomes of the extensive submarine study are being discussed in Dublin this week as part of a programme to create the first seabed habitat maps for northwest Europe.
The initiative, known as Mapping European Seabed Habitats (Mesh), involves 12 partners in five EU member states - Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
The project began in 2004, and is funded under the EU Interreg IIIB fund. It has drawn on expertise and information provided by the separate Irish seabed survey, one of the largest and most ambitious projects of its type, which is now focusing on inshore areas.
The information will provide a baseline for marine habitat mapping, and will allow managers and policy-makers to make more informed decisions on how best to protect and conserve natural resources for future generations, according to the Marine Institute.
Equipment and techniques used included multibeam acoustic seabed mapping, laser airborne sensors, and remote-operated vehicles with cameras and video recording equipment. As the Marine Institute points out, increasing industrial development in European seas is leading to an increased risk of conflict between users and a greater potential for environmental damage. "Yet scientists agree that we probably know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what lives on the bottom of our seas and oceans," Dr John Joyce, Marine Institute spokesman, says.
Speakers from Europe and North America will participate in a two-day conference on Mesh, which opened in Dublin yesterday. The project participants plan to publish Mesh Guidance in June - a web-based interactive multimedia document which can be used by the public, available on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website.