Southeast Tasmania Shelf Reef Bathymetry and Habitat Flythrough Video

A flythrough video visualizes the bathymetry of the southeast Tasmanian shelf, highlighting rock reefs as benthic habitats. The underlying bathymetric image is derived from multibeam sonar data collected in 2008 and 2009, gridded at 3-4 meter resolution. The work was a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, funded under the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities programme.

Use Cases

• Visualizing seafloor topography and reef structures based on the described high-resolution bathymetric data.
• Studying the relationship between geomorphology (e.g., low-relief vs. high-relief reefs) and benthic habitat distribution.
• Identifying potential sites for marine biodiversity research based on the described hard substrate habitats for kelp and sponges.

Strengths

• Bathymetric data is derived from multibeam sonar, a standard method for high-resolution seafloor mapping.
• The data covers specific, named features including Freycinet Peninsula, Tasman Peninsula, Hippolyte Rocks, and The Friars.
• The work is documented in a formal Geoscience Australia Record (2009/43), suggesting a level of peer review or documentation.

Limitations

• The primary accessible format is a video flythrough, which may limit quantitative analysis without the underlying raw data.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and University of Tasmania (Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies).

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar collected in 2008 and 2009 using a 300 kHz Simrad EM3002 system on RV Challenger, gridded at 3-4 m resolution.

Time Range

2008-2009

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:55:58.289215; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southeast Tasmanian shelf, including Freycinet Peninsula, Tasman Peninsula, Hippolyte Rocks, and The Friars south of Bruny Island.