We have seawater within a few metres of the office but as we all know it’s easy to overlook what’s on your doorstep! With this in mind we encouraged the marine ecologists to explore what lies beneath.

The ABPmer office is located in a fantastic waterfront location on Town Quay in Southampton Water. We asked the marine ecologists to take some time out from their busy summer schedule to capture underwater video footage of the marine life below our office with some really interesting and surprising results.

The footage was captured using High Definition (HD) cameras including a baited camera.  

Highlights from the survey can be seen here:

The video revealed that the Town Quay pier and pontoon structures provide a habitat for a diverse range of species from the stunning but delicate peacock worm to dense mussel aggregations which support predators such as the common starfish as well as birds including oystercatchers and gulls which roost on nearby pontoons.

The structures are completely encrusted in marine species including colourful sponges, anemones, sea squirts, sea snails, pacific oyster, fragile sea firs and algae such as kelp and red seaweeds.

Patrolling the water column are fish such as mullet and bass, whilst scavenging along the seabed are crabs.

Large plankton blooms in recent months have provided ideal growing conditions for thousands of moon jellyfish as well as other gelatinous species such as compass jellyfish, small sea gooseberries and comb jellies which flourish around the still conditions of the pier and pontoons.

Whilst not seen during this survey, Town Quay is sometimes visited by marine mammals too. We occasionally get common seals foraging here and we even had a curious grey seal haul out on some rocks for several days and a small pod of bottlenose dolphins last year!

Prepared by Andrew Pearson, Ecological Survey Specialist

ABPmer has extensive experience in designing and undertaking bespoke surveys based on standardised techniques and established protocols. Learn more about our capability at our Survey and Monitoring service page.