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National Seafloor Mapping and Benthic Habitat Studies: Pacific

Project #: 99380LD.0.0

Overview

The health of offshore marine and lacustrine ecosystems, fish stocks, and the fishing industry is of major national importance. The issue is complex and involves many environmental parameters, including geologic aspects of the sea floor such as the nature and stability of seabed sediment and the distribution and character of rock exposures. A 2001 workshop identified the following national goals:

• Mapping and characterizing benthic habitats at appropriate scales and resolutions,
• Extrapolating results from regional to national settings,
• Understanding geologic processes and environmental change,
• Sea floor classification,
• Developing prediction and Modeling capabilities,
• Publication of results in the form of maps and reports; dissemination of information through web sites; and effective management of data,
• Providing information and advice to management agencies, and
• Facilitating intra- and interagency collaboration on benthic habitat research.

The project addresses habitat issues in areas identified as high priority through discussions with DOI (BRD, MMS, FWS, NPS) and collaboratively with by NOAA (NMFS, NMS) and the nation's regional Fishery Management Councils. By linking geologic studies with fisheries and benthic biology research to allow for better fisheries and environmental management with an emphasis on MPAs. Large scale benthic habitat maps for the EEZ from California to Washington State are being developed at this time. These maps are being compiled using a subset of available geophysical and geologic information some of which has been shown to lack the quality required to resolve habitat features essential to fish (Cochrane and Lafferty, 2002) This project is collaborating with other agencies to procure funding and is collecting high resolution geophysical data, imagery, geological samples, and mining existing databases to improve the habitat classification in high priority areas such as proposed MPA's.

Start/End Dates 10/1/2002 - 9/30/2010 Location Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California Investigators Guy Cochrane, Project Chief   Pete Dartnell, Physical Scientist Brian Edwards, Geologist Sam Johnson, Geologist Jane Reid, Geologist Curt Storlazzi, Geologist

Areas mapped around the Northern Channel Islands

Objectives

The National Seafloor Mapping and 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 with in partnership with NOAA, NPS, MMS, EPA, DOE, DOD, other national and state agencies, and the Biology and Water disciplines of the USGS to obtain funding for multibeam mapping operations. Methods of classification and display of sonar, video, and possibly lidar data will be developed. 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.

Approach

We plan to cooperate with other DOI agencies, NOAA/NMS and NOAA Fisheries using existing MOU's to collect seafloor mapping data and groundtruthing information to expand our mapping of the Western Region nearshore waters. NOAA plans to provide ship time and other logistical support (2-4 weeks of ship time and approximately $10K a year since 1999). We will pursue other funding initiatives with NOAA. Opportunities to share costs with other agencies such as NPS, MMS, EPA, DOE, DOD, and state agencies are also pursued. We plan to provide mapping and geologic expertise, collaborate with Moss Landing Marine Lab to standardize the Essential Fish Habitat Map Series. We will share salary costs for a joint USGS/NOAA Fisheries postdoctoral researcher to facilitate standardization for seafloor mapping. We plan to study surficial processes that cause change effecting essential fish habitat.

Tasks and SubTasks

• usSEABED: Seabed Characterization and Controls on Fish Habitats, US Pacific Coasts
• Benthic habitat mapping in Pacific Marine Protected Areas (cooperative work with NOAA)
  • Moss Landing Marine Lab MOU for production of EFH maps
  • Cooperative mapping with the National Marine Sanctuaries Display
• Trout Spawning Habitat and Geologic Mapping in Northern Lake Michigan
• Predicting Seafloor Facies and Characterizing Benthic Habitats of the Los Angeles margin, southern California
• Seafloor mapping and characterization
  • Video Mapping
  • Central San Francisco Bay Seafloor Characterization Display
  • Geological Controls on the Distribution of Crater Lake, OR moss (Drepanocladus aduncus). Cooperative with BRD and NPS
• Burial of critical rocky habitat on the continental shelf
  • Long-term, Large-scale Geologic Processes and Habitat Change
  • Short-term, Small-scale Geologic Processes and habitat Change
• Benthic Habitat Mapping in Estuarine Environments (cooperative work with NPS and MMS)
  • Estuarine Mapping in Tomales Bay National Park
  • Seafloor change in response to recent glacial retreat, Glacier Bay
  • Rockfish habitat and oil platforms cooperative with MMS Display
• Other activities:
  • USGS Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz, CA Study
• California State cooperative geology and habitat mapping

Products

Nearshore Benthic Habitats web site:
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/nearshorehab/

• Pleasure Point Study:
  http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/research/projects/pleasurept.html
• Seafloor Mapping and Characterization:
  http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/pacmaps/
• usSEABED: Seabed Characterization and Controls on Fish Habitats, US Pacific Coasts:
  http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/usseabed/

Cooperators

• Minerals Management Service (MMS)/POC: Dunaway, Mary-Elaine
• National Marine Sanctuary Program/POC: Barr, Brad
• California Department of Fish and Game/POC: Wilson-Vandenberg, Debra; Osorio, David
• Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary/POC: Mobley , Chris
• Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary/POC: Howard, Dan
• Department of Defense (DOD)/Department of Defense, Navy, Naval Research Laboratory/POC: Sawyer, William
• Department of Defense (DOD)/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, South Pacific Division /POC: Shack, Art
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)/POC: Ota, Alan
• Hawaii Division of Land and Natural Resources/POC: Devick, Bill
• Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts/POC: Meistrell, Joe; Cadien, Donald; Montagne, David
• Maryland Geological Survey/POC: Halka, Jeff
• Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary/POC: De Marignac, Jean
• Moss Landing Marine Labs/POC: Greene, Gary; Field, Jeff
• National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)/POC: Vetter, Russell; Zimmermann, Mark; Wakefield, Waldo; Yoklavich, Mary
• National Marine Sanctuary Program/POC: Basta, Dan
• National Ocean Service (NOS)/POC: Debow, Samual
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary/POC: Airame, Satie
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Geophysical Data Center/POC: Moore, Carla; Sharman, George
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/POC: Piniak, Gregory
• National Park Service (NPS)/Crater Lake National Park/POC: Brock, Mac
• National Park Service (NPS)/POC: Davis, Gary; Lee, Tomie
• Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary/POC: Fletcher, Rick
• Orange County Sanitation District/POC: Robertson, George
• Oregon State University/POC: Whitmire, Curt; Romsos, Chris; Goldfinger, Chris
• California State Coastal Conservancy/POC: Coyne, Melanie
• URSCorp/POC: Niedoroda, Alan
• University of Florida/POC: Philips, Ed
• University of Hawaii/POC: Kelley, Chris
• California Department of Fish and Game/POC: Haaker, Peter; Wright, Nancy; Ugoretz, John
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection/POC: Dimaggio, J
• National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)/POC: Mcconnaughey, Bob
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Marine Protected Areas/POC: Wahle, Charles
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Biogeography Program/POC: Caldow, Chris
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment/POC: Clark, Rand
• Navy Facilities Command/POC: Madoski, Steve
• Orange County Sanitation District/POC: Robertson, George
• Amron Corporation (Navy contractor)/POC: Stevenson, Chris
• John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab/POC: Rennie, Sarah
• University of California, Irvine, Department of Earth System Science/POC: Komada, Tomoko
• University of California, Santa Cruz/PISCO/POC: Carr, Mark; Raimondi, Pete
• City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation/POC: Dalkey, Anne
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/POC: Baker, Greg
• Southern California Coastal Water Research Project/POC: Schiff, Ken; Weisberg, Stephen