| Description |
The Seafloor Mapping and National Benthic Habitat Studies Project: Pacific strives to produce maps and geologic information that are useful for marine resource management. The project utilizes traditional data collected by the Program including sampling, bottom video, sidescan sonar, and multibeam sonar data. The project develops new methods of combining these data to produce habitat and surficial geology maps. The project maintains collaborations and partnership with NOAA, NPS, MMS, and other national and state agencies, and the Biology and Water disciplines of the USGS to obtain funding for sonar mapping operations. Methods of classification and display of sonar, video, and possibly lidar data will be developed. The project collaborates with other Federal Agencies on the Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Classification Standard, a national standard for mapping and inventory of habitat. Existing sampling data are compiled in usSEABED, a relational database, of integrated quantitative and verbal data on seabed texture, composition, and geophysical properties for the continental shelves of the US in conjunction with additional funding from the Marine Aggregates project. These data can then be accessed for each area being mapped by the project as well as by outside searchers. |
| Keywords |
Habitat, mappping, benthic habitat, seafloor mapping, fisheries management, marine protected area, marine sanctuary, marine ecosystem, Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. |
