Table - summary of capabilities of various monitoring techniques for subtidal brittlestar beds

Summary of the capabilities of the various monitoring techniques, with respect to the study of brittlestar beds

	Remote sampling	Diving	Towed video	ROV	RoxAnn^TM
Equipment widely available	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Hard boat required	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Physical hazards	No	Yes	No	No	No
Depth/time limitations¹	No	Yes	No	No	No
Geographic constraints²	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Seabed topographic constraints³	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Sample collection	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (some models)	No
Close-up observation	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Areal coverage	Very low (per grab sample)	Low	Very high	High	Very high
Faunal density measurement	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

1. Refers to depths likely to be encountered in UK coastal waters (ie. < 200m)

2. Access to very shallow water or narrowly enclosed inlets

3. Deployment constrained by submarine obstructions