Intertidal Monitoring of Sediment Communities in Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) 2009 dataset https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=007_NRW_DS114944 The Habitats Directive establishes that the management of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) should aim to achieve the favourable conservation status of habitat and species features listed within its Annex I and Annex II. For SACs in Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) is therefore required to report on a regular basis on whether features are in favourable conservation status. Carmarthen Bay SAC was designated for five Annex I intertidal habitat features: Estuaries; Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide; Large shallow inlets and bays; Salicornia and other annuals colonising mud and sand; Atlantic salt meadows (Glauco- Puccinellietalia maritimae). Specific areas of interest include the range of intertidal sediment communities in the bay and the monitoring aimed to collect core samples along transects established in previous years. Data is captured to support reporting on conservation status of the piddock feature. All survey completed by professional and experienced marine field surveyors. Data quality and confidence considered high. Piddocks can be described as a biotope that occurs on circalittoral soft rock, such as soft chalk or clay, most often in moderately exposed tide-swept conditions. As soft chalk and firm clay are often too soft for sessile filter-feeding animals to attach and thrive in large numbers, an extremely impoverished epifauna results on upward-facing surfaces, although vertical faces may be somewhat richer. The rock is sufficiently soft to be bored by bivalves. 20120630