MARINE ECOLOGY

Ocean Marine (Research) Ltd. formerly known as Ocean Marine is an offshore survey company which has been in existence since 1984. Its ecological consultancy department was formed at the beginning of 2003, at which point the company's existing expertise in survey logistics and management was strengthened by the employment of established ecologists with both commercial and research profiles.

The company's capability is enhanced by a purpose built research vessel for seabird, cetacean, benthic, oceanographic surveys and scientific diving (see vessel specification ). This vessel is also used to develop the company's research and development program, which includes the application to boat radar in the study of seabird movement and acoustic monitoring of cetacean distribution and abundance.

Our services provide a range of ecological assessment from marine development projects to basic ecological research, often with applications to industry in which staff work in collaboration with a number of UK and European research institutes. A common approach to projects, avoiding identified limitations of much consultancy work is;

............. * EFFICIENT SURVEY LOGISTICS ........................................................ ............. * RIGOROUS DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ................................................. ............. * ACADEMIC SUPPORT IN STUDY, DESIGN AND DATA ANALYSIS .......................... ............. * COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

CORE SERVICES OFFERED:

* Survey Logistics: Mobilisation of vessels and surveyors, survey design and automated recording of position through Trimble 'HydroPro' software

* Commercial and Scientific diving: All aspects of site investigation and construction undertaken and conducted to a very high standard while following HSE & ACOP guidelines

* Seabird and Cetacean Survey: Transect surveys to European standards, behavioural studies, concurrent gathering of explanatory environmental variables, radar studies and hydrophone surveys of cetaceans

* Data Treatment and Mapping: Data entry and management for import into GIS for mapping of distribution of abundance

* In-house use of GIS and Statistical Software packages: For the interpretation of bird and cetacean distribution in relation to environmental variables and impact assessment

* Scoping and Full Authorship: of Ornithology chapters of environmental statements, including environmental and impact assessment