Abundance of megabenthos observed during Underwater Visual Census at pilot oyster reefs in the Borkum Reef Ground marine protected area during September 2021

The Underwater Visual Census (UVC) transect was carried out by scientific divers during the RESTORE expedition on board the ship Arctic Ocean during September 2021, focusing on the monitoring oyster pilot reefs and the ecology of benthic assemblages in the Borkum Reef Ground marine protected area. Due to logistic problems, only one of the two planned transects was done. The UVC transect consisted of seven 1x1m sampling regions. To define these regions, divers used a 1m-long PVC pipe. At each sampling region, the diver spent approximately 1 minute counting and identifying, to the lowest taxonomic level possible, as many organisms as possible. The UVC transect provide insights into the general composition of key species, higher systematic groups and ecological guilds. Files included correspond to the UVC video, as well as the abundance of organisms at each sampling region. Precise geographical coordinates for start/end of the transect, as well as that for individual sampling regions is unavailable.