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Habitat Mapping

The west Florida shelf (WFS) supports some of the most valuable reef fish fisheries in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. However, very little of its area has been mapped with enough resolution to accurately locate and quantify the bottom habitat these fisheries are tied to.  Such maps are essential for designing an efficient fishery independent survey of reef fishes, enabling pre-stratification by habitat, minimizing variance and optimizing survey resources.  In 2008 we tested a side scan sonar in the Big Bend of Florida and realized just how useful it could be, so in support of our fishery independent reef fish surveys we purchased a side scan sonar in late 2009.  In the spring of 2010 we began mapping cross-shelf transects on the northern WFS using a Marine Sonic HDS 600/1200 kHz side scan sonar.  In seven days, 10 single swath cross-shelf transects ~20-30 nm X 150 m, primarily in depths from 10 to 30 m, were mapped in Apalachee Bay in the Florida Big Bend, yielding approximately 1400 new hard bottom sites.  Additionally, 355 sites were found in a 13.2 km2 area of high relief (up to 10m) off Panama City.  An inexpensive live video drop camera, a high definition video camera array, and occasionally an ROV were used for visual ground truthing of a select number of the side scan targets.  Ground truthing specific targets from side scan data proved to be very useful in developing a habitat classification scheme.  From this we were able to classify habitat types, as well as measure habitat relief and area in an effort to sample a variety of reef types in our surveys. 

Marine Sonic HDS 600/1200 kHz Side scan sonar.

Identifying sonar targets from the side scan live waterfall.

Example of side scan waterfall image, and the associated ground truthed image from the stationary drop camera.  This reef type was classified as scattered rock. 

600 kHz side scan image and ground-truth photo from the HD video camera array of a ledge (~1.5m) in the Big Bend.

While most of our mapping efforts have focused in the Big Bend, we are currently planning to extend our coverage to from the areas offshore of Panama City to Destin, FL. 

Side scan sonar mapping to date, as well as future mapping plans.