The Dorset Marine Biodiversity Database

An electronic record of the species and habitats found off the Dorset coast

• Background
• Data Exchange
• Marine Network
• Clients
• Funding

Background

Rock cook Photo: Richard Edmonds

Despite being a county with a superb coastline, up until June 2001 Dorset had no central database for their marine records. Thanks to the Joint Dorset Marine Committee this is no longer the case.

The Dorset Marine Biodiversity Database originated at the Dorset Wildlife Trust in June 2000 as the Dorset Central Marine Database. It was transferred to DERC in June 2001 where work has been progressing to draw together, in an electronic format, all the marine species and habitat data from surveys that have been undertaken within Dorset waters.

Since December 2001, there has been a full-time Marine Database Officer working on inputting the backlog of marine records, developing the database and establishing new contacts for obtaining data.

Currently the Marine Biodiversity Database holds over 33,000 records, dating from 1802 to the present.

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Data exchange

Male cuckoo wrasse and Anemones Photo: Richard Edmonds

DERC are establishing data exchange systems with many national marine organisations, most notably, The Conchological Society and The UK Marine Fish Recording Scheme. Locally, data exchange agreements are established with Durlston Marine mammal project, Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve, Dorset Seasearch, Poole Harbour Study Group, Fleet Study Group, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Southampton Oceanography Centre, English Nature and the Dorset Coast Forum.

Marine Literature database

A searchable literature database of all the surveys, reports and literature relating to the Dorset coast is available online. The database is maintained by the Joint Dorset Marine Committee of the Dorset Coast Forum.

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Funding

This project would not have been possible without funding from:

• QinetiQ;
• SCOPAC (Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline);
• Dorset County Council;
• English Nature (Dorset Team);
• Environment Agency;

to whom we are grateful.

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