USGS: Coastal and Marine Geosciences Data System: Ocean Uses

Ocean Uses

Data about human activities that occur in, on, under, or immediately above the water in the Nation's coastal and marine environments. Humans use and engage with the oceans in a variety of ways and purposes. To provide an objective, transparent, and consistent means of describing, understanding, and planning for those diverse activities, NOAA's National Marine Protected Areas Center recently published A Common Language of Ocean Uses (Wahle and Townsend, 2013). This simple framework defines 35 distinct ways that people use the oceans in the United States. The framework describes each use from a functional perspective, articulating in objective terms how and where the use typically operates in ocean space and what components it involves (for example, vessels, gear, and so on). The resulting use categories provide a means for aggregating functionally similar uses (for example, offshore recreational and commercial pelagic fishing), while allowing important distinctions to be made and explored within the categories (for example, uses pursued for commercial as opposed to recreational purposes). These Ocean Use categories are included in this document as a proposed unifying framework for collecting, organizing, managing, and applying data on human uses of the oceans for CMSP and other place-based management efforts. Distributions are maps or other spatial representations of human uses of the ocean across space or over time. Assessments are evaluations of the trends, ecological requirements and impacts, demographics, socioeconomic drivers and benefits, and conflicts and compatibilities of other human uses of the ocean in its present distribution. Predictions are the results of projections of future distributions or implications of human uses of the ocean, including changes in response to human and natural processes, optimal locations, and trade-offs resulting from different management actions. As an organizing tool, these uses are here divided into five groups, or sectors, reflecting commonalities of purpose and approach among similar uses.

Subtopics:

Energy Production (7 items)

Harvesting Living Resources (1 items)

Recreational Nonextractive /Cultural Use (1 items)

9 results listed alphabetically [list by similarity]

CMECS seafloor induration derived from multibeam echosounder data collected offshore of south-central California in support of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Cal DIG I, offshore alternative energy project Seafloor induration (surface hardness) was derived from multibeam echosounder (MBES) and annotated underwater video data collected offshore of Morro Bay, California, from 2016 to 2020. MBES and underwater video data were collected in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing I (Cal DIG I) project, under a collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Substrate observations from ...	Info
CMECS substrate, geoform, and biotic component polygons derived from multibeam echosounder data and underwater video observations collected offshore of south-central California in support of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Cal DIG I, offshore alternative energy project These metadata describe Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS; Federal Geographic Data Committee, 2012) attributed polygons derived from multibeam echosounder acoustic bathymetry and backscatter intensity data, and from underwater video collected offshore of Morro Bay, California from 2016 to 2020. The polygons have CMECS substrate, geoform and biotic component attributes. Most of the data were collected in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ...	Info
Continuous Resistivity Profiling, Electrical Resistivity Tomography and Hydrologic Data Collected in 2017 from Indian River Lagoon, Florida Extending 200 kilometers (km) along the Atlantic Coast of Central Florida, Indian River Lagoon (IRL) is one of the most biologically diverse estuarine systems in the continental United States. The lagoon is characterized by shallow, brackish waters and a width that varies between 0.5 and 9.0 km; there is significant human development along both shores. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center used continuous resistivity profiling (CRP, a towed ...	Info
Invertebrate remains from the Dominican University of California archaeological site MRN-CA-254, Marin County, California This data release indicates faunal presence or absence of shelly artifacts (invertebrate remains) from the Dominican University of California archaeological site MRN-CA-254, Marin County, California.	Info
Physical, environmental, and biotic observations derived from underwater video collected offshore of south-central California in support of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Cal DIG I offshore alternative energy project Physical, environmental, and biotic observations were derived from underwater video collected by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) offshore of Morro Bay, California. The data were acquired during three separate surveys in 2019 in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing I (Cal DIG I) project. Transect information developed to analyze the data for ...	Info
Physical, environmental, and substrate observations derived from underwater video collected offshore of south-central California in support of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Cal DIG I offshore alternative energy project Physical, environmental, and substrate observations were derived from underwater video collected by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) offshore of Morro Bay, California. A majority of the data were acquired during three separate surveys in 2019 in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing I (Cal DIG I) project. Additional observations from underwater ...	Info
Seafloor character offshore of Morro Bay, California Seafloor character, a combination of seafloor induration (surface hardness) and rugosity, was derived from multibeam echosounder (MBES) and annotated underwater video data collected offshore of Morro Bay, California. The MBES and underwater video data were collected in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) California Seafloor Mapping Program, under a collaboration with the California State University Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping Lab, the California Ocean Protection Council, and the National Oceanic ...	Info
Seafloor character offshore of Point Buchon, California Seafloor character, a combination of seafloor induration (surface hardness) and rugosity, was derived from multibeam echosounder (MBES) and annotated underwater video data collected offshore of Point Buchon, California. The MBES and underwater video data were collected in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) California Seafloor Mapping Program, under a collaboration with the California State University Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping Lab, the California Ocean Protection Council, and the National ...	Info
Seafloor character offshore of Point Estero, California Seafloor character, a combination of seafloor induration (surface hardness) and rugosity, was derived from multibeam echosounder (MBES) and annotated underwater video data collected offshore of Point Estero, California. The MBES and underwater video data were collected in support of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) California Seafloor Mapping Program, under a collaboration with the California State University Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping Lab, the California Ocean Protection Council, and the National ...	Info