USGS Nearshore Benthic Habitat Project

The nearshore benthic habitat supports a diversity of marine life that are commercially, recreationally, and intrinsically valuable. Some of these resources are known to be endangered including species of rockfish and shellfish. State and National agencies have been mandated to preserve and enhance these resources and require detailed habitat characterization in order to do so. The Nearshore Benthic Habitats Project of the USGS WesternRegion Coastal and Marine Geology Team will map the benthic habitat in areas that have been selected because they have been set aside as National Marine Sanctuaries, National Parks, State Fish Preserves, or are areas of ongoing or planned fish population studies.

Presently, two areas are under study:

Alaskan Benthic Habitats

• Multibeam Bathymetry and Selected Perspective Views of Main Part of Glacier Bay, Alaska
• Preliminary results from 1998 Field Work in Glacier Bay
• Preliminary results from 1997 Field Work in Glacier Bay
• Glacier Bay National Park Project results from 1996 field work.

Southern California Marine Protected Areas

Areas mapped around the Northern Channel Islands to date

• Nearshore Benthic Habitat GIS for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Southern California State Fisheries Reserves Volume 1
  
• 2003 Research Cruise on the R/V McArthur II
• 2001 Research Cruise on the R/V Robert Gordon Sproul
• 2000 Research Cruise on the R/V McArthur
• 2000 Research Cruise on the R/V Ballena
• 1999 Reasearch Cruise on the R/V McArthur
• 1999 Research Cruise on the R/V Ballena (2)
• 1999 Research Cruise on the R/V Ballena
• 1998 Research Cruise on the R/V Ballena
• Sustainable Seas Submersible Project
• Preliminary results from 1998 Field Work in the Channel Islands

For additional information contact the project coordinator, Guy R. Cochrane.