An important part of the preparation needed in order to carry out the objectives of the project, was the choice of the most appropriate sampling and/or surveying methods, and to select sites for the study based on the best available information relating to fishery practices. Therefore, it was first of all necessary to establish the local spatial patterns of fishery exploitation, taken from recorded data on fleet size and composition, fishing intensity information based on catch statistics taken in conjunction with landing records. In order to carry out a comparison of rapid methodologies for quantifying environmental impacts of otter trawls, the following tasks based on different methodologies were necessary.
i)	to select the most appropriate lightweight towed gear, either small beam trawls or Agassiz trawls, for sampling epifaunal megabenthos, and also to decide how many replicates would be required.
ii)	to survey the sea bed microtopography using sonar imaging techniques (side scan sonar and RoxAnn) on grounds in the Aegean and Clyde sea areas.
iii)	from the sampling of epifaunal megabenthos, using standardized lightweight towed gear, to deliver the following information: Assessments of the damage load of vulnerable elements of the benthos, notably starfish, brittlestars, crustaceans and molluscs, but also sea-pens, sponges and ascidians if present. Assessment of variability between samples. Assessments of the population densities of selected megafaunal epibenthos. Analyses of the functional group composition of the megafaunal epibenthos.
iv)	to ‘ground-truth’ the data deriving from ii) and iii) using sledge-mounted underwater video camera and, where appropriate, ROV, SCUBA diving and sediment profile imagery (SPI). These are also rapid assessment methodologies and will also allow scale effects to be assessed.
v)	to relate the data from all the above to granulometric structure and degree of sediment compaction/penetrability. Sedimentological data, combined with underwater television will also provide ground-truthing to the sonar studies. Sediment samples will be taken by corer (diver or remote)
Data analysis and synthesis, including a consideration of the scale effects of the different methodologies, willalso be carried out. We shall present a series of images from ii) and iv) in the field work page, as and when these become available.