1. No further survey work is necessary to inform the baseline characterisation for East Anglia THREE and FOUR for both benthic and epibenthic communities, as the results of the Power analysis indicate that the number of samples already collected are more than sufficient to confidently assess greater than a 50% change in diversity index values with a high statistical Power.
2. To provide a spatially and statistically sound baseline from which to measure potential impacts of the project, unsurveyed areas from the cable corridor should be sampled, and to provide temporal consistency, consideration should be given to resampling the entire cable corridor.
3. Sampling design should be carried out using the same grid approach as that employed for the 2011 Zonal characterisation survey.
4. A reduction in sample number for future benthic surveys is possible, however due consideration of potential impacts and dialogue with the regulators is required.
