Services & Solutions

• Overview
• Marine environment monitoring and management
  • Water and sediment quality surveys
  • Marine fauna and flora surveys
  • Biological oceanographic surveys
  • Marine fauna observations
  • Monitoring program design
  • Development of environmental management thresholds
  • Design of Environmental Management Plans (EMPs)
• Environmental Approvals and EIA
• Coastal surveys
• Spatial services
• Project management and field operations
• Data management
• Environmental audits and compliance assessments
• Biostatistics and survey design
• Seagrass and benthic habitat rehabilitation and restoration

The determination of thresholds is particularly important for projects with unique requirements or that fall outside the scope of established precedents.  BMT Oceanica has extensive experience in the development of environmental thresholds that meet the needs of customers and regulators.  Establishment of such thresholds requires an expert knowledge of relevant environmental ‘cause-effect’ pathways, the likely response of key biological indicators to anthropogenic pressures, and the point at which measured changes in the indicators represent ecologically relevant change. BMT Oceanica has developed environmental thresholds for a number of projects:

• Aquaculture
  • Sediment infauna - based on organic carbon deposition rates
  • Phase-shifts from coral to macroalgal communities – based on biologically available nitrogen
• Treated wastewater outlets
  • Coastal macroalgal communities  - based on biochemical signatures and community composition
• Dredging
  • Sediment and light thresholds for benthic communities and spawning fish
• Desalination and power station discharges
  • Physico-chemical triggers