Underwater video from the Wessel Marine Park (INV2019T02)

Survey INV2019T02 was conducted under the National Marine Facility’s supplementary voyage opportunities on the RV Investigator between the 4th to 14th October 2019, with multiple discrete projects and principal investigators. One of these projects aimed to characterise habitats of targeted areas within Wessel Marine Park, providing crucial baseline information to better understand and manage this marine park, including those sites sacred to local indigenous communities. As part of this project, four 1500 m video transects were undertaken across a range of geomorphic features and depth gradients focussed on a deep hole feature within and adjacent to the Wessel Marine Park. Raw video files are located in folder 'INV2019T02_TOWVID_VIDEOS', named by station number and camera tow. These do not have georeferencing. The benthic environment in the study area was highly turbid with strong currents, and associated imagery can therefore only be used for habitat classification, coarse morphospecies identification, or defining broad biological communities. Onboard habitat annotations are included as an excel file, with camera positioning included.