This should be detectable first from the acoustic surveys. However, it is not known how fast beds build up or whether any meso-scale relief on them like a wave form is constant. There is scope here for long-term investigations of the thickness of the deposits both by shallow sub-bottom acoustic profiling and perhaps by diver operated probes or even fixed marks. The rate at which mussel deposits erode away after the living mussels have gone may need to be investigated.

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