The Marine Biodiversity Data Portal (MBDP–NI), is a five-year DAERA Environment Fund project based at Queen’s University Marine Laboratory and in partnership with the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR). The aim of the project is to build an innovative web-based portal for exploring Northern Ireland’s marine biodiversity. The interactive website will incorporate recent as well as archive imagery and data from legacy surveys. The survey sites will be displayed as GIS layers on an EMODnet Bathymetry layer and will link through to site descriptions, photographs/video, biotopes and species lists. The species lists will be linked to detailed species pages with descriptions, photographs and distribution maps and links to DNA barcodes. The presentation will demonstrate the potential of high definition 4K video captured by volunteer divers, as a tool for habitat condition assessments, marine spatial planning and for making the rich diversity of Northern Ireland’s marine habitats and species more visible and publicly available in order to inspire and engage a wide audience.
Picton et al. (Mon,) studied this question.