SEABOSS Images in JPEG Format from Cruises 2010-010-FA and 2010-015-FA in Long Island Sound North of Duck Pond Point, New York

On cruise 2010-010-FA: The Mini SEABOSS (SEABed Observation and Sampling System) was designed specifically for the USGS Woods Hole Science Center's 26-foot research boat Rafael. This system is equipped with two video cameras, a digital still camera, and a Van Veen grab sampler. This system, weighing approximately 185 lbs, can be used to depths up to 40 meters. The grab itself is raised and lowered with a 3/16-inch Aramid fiber winch-line with a breaking strength of 5,600 pounds. The davit is secured when the Mini SEABOSS is in the water. The electrical cable is on a spring-wound take-up reel with electrical slip rings that is mounted aft of the sampler. This arrangement protects the 0.38-in. multi-conductor cable and keeps the Mini SEABOSS correctly oriented with the boat. This multi-conductor cable enables communication between the ship's lab and the Mini SEABOSS system. The digital camera, a Minolta Dimage 7Hi, is mounted in a machined Delrin housing with a flat port and is set for 2560 x 1920 pixel images at the "fine" setting for compression. This allows the camera to be used for over 200 images with a 1 GB Compact Flash card without downloading. The system also has a 50 Watt/second flash unit powered by 8 AA batteries. Two battery-powered lasers are set 15 cm apart for scale measurements. The red laser dots can usually be seen in the photo depending on the bottom type and the distance to the sea floor. A third battery powered laser is positioned at an angle so that when it intersects the other lasers, the Mini SEABOSS is at the optimum height off the bottom for a still photograph. The camera is set to a manual focus and set to a default focus distance once the camera is powered up. The default focus distance is slightly less than the optimum height above the seafloor to account for optical distortion under water.
On cruise 2010-015-FA: For cruise 2010-015-FA: The USGS mid-sized SEABOSS system was deployed to capture still photos and bottom video eastern Long Island Sound. This system was used to obtain video and 3 to 4 images at each station as the OSV Bold drifted over the seabed for 2 to 5 minutes. The video was collected with a Kongsberg Simrad model OE1365 video camera. The third laser on the system was set to an angle such that the optimum photograph height was 50 cm. The default focus on the camera was set to 50 cm. The imaged area is most often within .3 to 1 meter from left to right. Other camera settings are as follows: aperture is set at f/8; shutter speed is 1/250 second. A total of 26 still photographs of the sea floor, which were recorded on 35-mm film, were acquired at 8 stations within the study area with a Photosea 1000 stills camera.
Although the images themselves have no georeferencing information, the navigation related to each photograph is available in an ESRI formatted shapefile: h11999_botphotos.shp. This data can be downloaded from the following locations: <https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1149/data/botphotos/h11999_botphotos.zip>; <https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1149/html/catalog.html>