CEFAS26-78 Contract for the provision of a marine environmental survey vessel.

Cefas and Natural England (NE) have been working collaboratively to deliver a monitoring survey within the Kentish Knock East (KKNE) Marine Protected Areas (MPA) as part of the ongoing MPA monitoring programme funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Through this programme, Cefas co-ordinates some of the evidence collection for the monitoring of MPAs in English waters.
The survey aims to support NE’s monitoring objectives and provide robust evidence to inform conservation measures (Type 1 monitoring) as well as at assessing the recovery of benthic habitats after the implementation of proposed management measures within the MPA (Type 3 monitoring).
The first part of the survey at KKNE was undertaken in November 2025 and focuses on grab sampling. However, the data collection could not be completed due to equipment failure. Cefas and NE are therefore seeking to deliver the remaining objectives of the survey:
1. Monitor the extent and distribution of sediment Broadscale Habitats (BSH) through the acquisition of imagery data, using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) as the primary system, with a Drop-Down Video (DDV) camera as a back-up.
2. Monitor the carbon content of sediment BSH features through the collection of sediment imagery, using a Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) camera.
Objective 1 above will be conducted in collaboration with a team from the University of Southampton (UoS).
Survey design:
The KKNE survey design adopts a Before-After Control-Impact approach and a box design, to collect data from within the MPA and in control areas outside the site boundary. The boxes are labelled Case Study Areas (CSAs): two located within the MCZ (‘impact’) and two corresponding CSAs outside the MCZ (‘control’).
Each CSA has an approximate area of 8-9 km2 and were positioned to avoid existing infrastructure in the MPA such as a power cable running through the south of the site (Figure 1). A 1nm buffer was applied to all infrastructure to...