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August 11, 2017

Improving our understanding of benthic habitats

BY: Oceana Web

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I must say that I’m thoroughly enjoying our adventure on board the Neptune – it is a pleasure working with such a wonderful crew! As a researcher from the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) I am interested in learning more about the distribution, structure and functioning of marine macrofauna within the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Together with the Oceana crew my collaborators Leo, Karin and I are combining acoustic, visual and seabed sampling techniques in order to improve our understanding of benthic habitats and communities existing in this sector of the North Sea. The next step for me when I return to dry land will be to take my samples to the lab to determine the species of macrofauna that we collected in our samples, as well as their biological traits ……… which will involve many hours behind the microscope!