2004 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Loch nam Madadh marine features Site Condition Monitoring inaugeration survey

The purpose of this study was to initiate Site Condition Monitoring (SCM) of the Loch nam Madadh SAC qualifying features: large shallow inlet and bays, saline lagoons, intertidal and sublittoral reefs, intertidal sediment flats, and subtidal sandbanks. This survey was done to: (1) establish a baseline biological data set that would facilitate the assessment of the condition of the habitats in the future; and (2) to allow a judgement to be formed on the current condition of these habitats. The main approach taken to achieve these objectives was to perform a drop-down video survey of the biotopes of the SAC, concentrating on the sublittoral sediments, to characterise the infauna of the main sediment biotopes by means of grab and core sampling, and to perform surveys of the epibiota of rock, lagoon, maerl and Zostera biotopes along relocatable transects.