By using a camera on the Autosub6000 AUV to take a continuous stream of high resolution photographs of life on the sea floor, this new method revealed a tenfold increase in the precision of deepsea ecosystem diversity estimates relative to the use of scientific trawling. - Halil

Dr Kirsty Morris, the lead author of this research, published in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods, said: “This is an important step towards the automated imaging of the deep sea, which is essential for understanding the complexity of seafloor biodiversity and its future management” - Halil

This research showed that anemones were the most abundant animal on the sea floor, information that has been previously missed from trawling because they became damaged in the nets and rendered unrecognisable. - Halil