|
Rocky Intertidal Health
The
Rocky Intertidal Health
Sub-Committee
is
developing bioindices for rocky shores which can be used to predictably
“rank” the relative health of rocky intertidal communities. Our goal, once
bioindices are developed, is to evaluate the health of the Pacific rocky
shores in a “State of the Rocky Shores” public document.
|
Mussel Watch
During Fall 2007, MARINe
teamed up with federal, state, and local agencies to add 13 new sites to a
network of locations where mussels are collected for water quality analysis.
This increase results in a total of 34 Mussel Watch sites in southern
California.
|
|
Mapping Initiatives
MARINe has embarked on a
number of mapping efforts at large and small scales to improve our
understanding of the habitat. These efforts are unique because the habitat
is only exposed at low tide and other mapping efforts do not account for
tide.
MARINe efforts include:
Large scale mapping from planes and helicopters
|
California Department of Fish and
Game Planes: CDFG volunteered the use of their plane so the Pacific
Region Intertidal Survey & Monitoring Team (PRISM) could conduct overflights of Ventura County sites at low tide.
Markers were used at the site to delineate plots and significant
features. |
|
California Coastal Marine Habitat
Maps: Funded by NOAA and BOEMRE, Tenera Environmental has produced a GIS incorporating data from two
BOEMRE
mapping studies from the late 70’s/early 80’s for easy application to
current technologies. These mapping efforts used a low-flying helicopter at
low tide, with periodic groundtruthing with transects. They represent one of
the only existing baseline mapping efforts. Slides taken during these
studies are also available through BOEMRE. |
Small
scale mapping using blimps and remote helicopters
A small, 15 foot blimp
with an undermounted camera was piloted at several sites to determine its
utility for mapping at a site-wide scale.
The blimp is easily
transported, takes photos at scaled heights, and is useful for examining
changes within and without the plots at the site. It is somewhat limited
by wind. |
|
A 10 foot remotely
controlled helicopter was also tested but was found to not be appropriate
for the wind conditions encountered along the open coast.
|
|
Tide-height
laser measurements for within-site mapping A laser measuring device
used to obtain the elevation at specific points at a site has greatly
improved the within site mapping capability and improved elevation
comparison between sites. |
|
|
|