Marine Recorder Online Database

Marine Recorder was developed about 20 years ago by JNCC in conjunction with the country agencies (NE, CCW, SNH, etc), to meet the needs of the country agencies to accurately collate, store and share survey data. It holds seabed survey data, especially from quadrat, core, grab, diver and video surveys. The physical data (depth, zone, sediment granulometry, etc) and the biotope data (biological community) that are associated with the species data are all held together. It is important to note that the data held in Marine Recorder is used both for reporting and for more general advice. Importantly, it is crucial for WFD and Article 17 (Reg 9a in the future) reporting. However, it is also used for casework advice (datasets showing Annex I and Section 7 habitats are available to developers, for example), advice on managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) (e.g. identification of areas of sensitive habitats or species), advice on completion of the MPA network (currently a high priority piece of work).