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Content Citation
	Title of Content:	West Coast Groundfish Habitat Characterization for Essential Fish Habitat (EFH): Merged Geology, Estuaries, Bathymetry, and Latitude off Central California
	Type of Content:	Downloadable Data
	Content Publisher:	TerraLogic GIS, Inc. (data compilation)
	Publication Date:	2004
Content Description
	Content Summary: This data set delineates physical seafloor characteristics of the continental margin of the United States West Coast. The physical characteristics included in this merged data set -- seafloor geology, estuaries, bathymetry, and latitude -- were chosen by marine fisheries experts as the essential elements of groundfish habitat. Seafloor geology is classified according to Greene et. al. (1999) deep-water marine benthic habitat scheme. Seafloor feature interpretation was performed by West Coast geologic mapping experts as a synthesis of various source data sets, including side-scan sonar, bottom samples, seismic data, and multibeam bathymetry. The Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Lab, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University developed the data for Oregon and Washington. The Center for Habitat Studies, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories developed the data for California. Bathymetry consists of 10-meter depth contours. Latitude is delineated in 10 minute zones. Most estuarine areas were not included in the geological data, but because they are also important areas for some groundfish species, the boundaries of estuarine areas were also included in the merged data set.
	Content Purpose: These data were developed for Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Region and the Pacific Fishery Management Council in support of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to consider the designation and conservation of Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for Pacific Coast Groundfish. These data were consolidated and integrated in a GIS format to support spatially explicit groundfish habitat modelling and impacts assessment on a coastwide scale.
	Supplemental Information: The merged West Coast EFH habitat layer is divided into five regional coverages due to processing limitations of ArcInfo software. Most of the input data layers were developed from different data sources and with different shoreline data sets. Due to time and resource limitations, the inconsistencies created by different shorelines and different bathymetry data sets were not manually corrected. The shoreline and seaward boundaries of the geological habitat layer were used as the primary boundaries to which the other layers were clipped.
Time Period of Content
	Date:	REQUIRED: The year (and optionally month, or month and day) for which the data set corresponds to the ground.
Content Status
	Progress:	Complete
	Update Frequency:	Unknown
Spatial Domain
	West Coordinate:	-124.098647
	East Coordinate:	-120.201496
	North Coordinate:	38.487620
	South Coordinate:	34.253851
	Coverage Area:	west coast, central California, Northwest Pacific Ocean
Content Keywords
	Theme Keywords:	seafloor, habitat, benthic, geophysical, bathymetry, latitude, marine, estuary, essential fish habitat (EFH)
	Place Keywords:	west coast, central California, Northwest Pacific Ocean
Spatial Data Information
	Data Type:	vector digital data
	Data Format:	Shapefile
	Data Projection:	Albers Conical Equal Area
Access and Usage Information
	Access Constraints:	none
	Use Constraints:	none