The Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) intends to establish a Desalination Plant with an output capacity (treated water) of 25 Mm3/annum just north of Swakopmund at Mile 6, on Namibia's central coast. Associated with the plant will be a Sea Water Intake structure designed for a maximum of 110 Mm3/annum, with an installed abstraction capacity of 63 Mm3/annum complete and a brine disposal system through which 38 Mm3/annum of brine will be discharged back into the sea. With respect to the proposed project, and in line with Namibia's Environmental Assessment Policy (1994) and the provisions contained in the Environmental Management Act (2007), NamWater requires the compilation of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). As an important input into this EIA, NamWater has asked the CSIR for their consultancy services to conduct marine and geophysical surveys and to compile a Marine Specialist and Geophysical Marine Report. CSIR in turn has appointed Pisces Environmental Services (Pisces) to provide the biological marine studies and the Marine Specialist Report. Following the Scope of Work specified by NamWater, one of the two components to the marine study was to conduct a biological survey of the nearshore marine environment in the vicinity of the proposed desalination plant to establish baseline conditions (diversity and abundance of macrofaunal communities) before the commencement of construction of, and subsequent brine discharge from, the proposed desalination plant. The results of the survey were to provide input into the Marine Specialist Report. It was also intended that the survey provide the baseline for a potential monitoring study assessing the impacts of the brine disposal on the benthic marine environment.