1. Explore the Sea Floor Find out what a marine scientist does Lets explore the sea bed in the Bristol Channel and see what animals and habitats we can find

3. Explore the Sea Floor What have scientists been doing? How have they been doing it? Why have they been doing it?

4. Explore the Sea Floor Scientists have been taking samples of the sea bed from a boat For 2 reasons: To study the biology To study the geology

5. Explore the Sea Floor A grab removes a sample of the sea bed The biology The sample of sea bed is taken back to the ship The animals are removed from the sample, identified and counted

6. Explore the Sea Floor A graph is then plotted to show the sediment type Samples of the sea bed sediment are taken This is called sediment analysis The sediment is weighed and sieved through different sized sieves The geology

7. What happens next? These studies means we can identify all the the habitat types Muddy sand Gravelly Stoney Sand Rock

8. What happens next? These are some of the animals found in the Bristol Channel Shells Crabs & shrimps Worms Sea urchins Fish

9. What happens next? We can match the animal with its habitat Muddy sand Gravelly Stoney Sand Rock

10. Explore the Sea Floor Geological data is also collected…….. Multibeam Boomer Sidescan Sonar GPS Satellite

11. Explore the Sea Floor This means we can look at the shape of the sea bed Sonar uses sound waves which bounce off the sea bed and back to a receiver

12. This is what the geological data looks like:

13. Why explore the sea floor? We need to know what is there so we can look after it The sea is used for many different things, such as recreation and dredging We can therefore check if any of these activities have an effect on the habitat and what lives there

14. Why explore the sea floor? Now we can tell people about the life on the sea floor from school children to scientists and people in government It is important to look after the environment we live in

15. Why don’t you explore the sea floor? have fun with this CD go and explore the sea floor for yourselves see what secrets you can find