A series of North Sea benthos surveys with trawl and headline camera

During a series of North Sea demersal fish surveys, a headline camera was used to photograph the sea-bed at intervals of 1 min, throughout the duration of 60 min trawls. A successful series of underwater photographs were obtained at 119 stations throughout the North Sea. In addition, the benthos caught at 317 stations was recorded. A total ofca. 30 species could be identified on the underwater photographs, and of these ten species were sufficiently common or locally abundant for estimates of local population densities to be made. Distributions throughout the North Sea based on specimens trawled and specimens photographed were compared.