Research vessel services. Environmental services. Marine research services. Marine survey services. JNCC wish to commission a deepwater survey in the summer of 2013 to gather seabed data/evidence from a number of deepwater areas to the west of Scotland. There are four areas of interest; the first three are Scottish Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposals whilst the last area is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC). The four areas are shown in Figure 1 and are as follows:

— SW Sula Sgeir & Hebridean Slope Scottish Nature Conservation MPA proposal,

— Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope Scottish Nature Conservation MPA proposal,

— The Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount Scottish Nature Conservation MPA proposal,

— East Rockall Bank cSAC.

The required evidence within these four areas will be acquired through a number of survey methodologies, including but not limited to acoustic methods (for example, deepwater multibeam and sidescan sonar), benthic sampling (box cores/grabs) and high resolution seabed imagery (video and stills).

JNCC require an offshore survey contractor with an excellent demonstrable track record to undertake a deepwater survey to the above areas. The water depths for these areas range from 100m down to 2200m; contractors should ensure that their proposals are appropriate to gather seabed evidence from this range of depths. The contract is planned to start in July 2013 through to the end of March 2014. In addition to the aquisition of data, the submission should also include interpretation and reporting of the work.