| View FGDC Metadata as parseable text | ||
| Content Citation | ||
| Title of Content: | West Coast Groundfish Habitat Characterization for Essential Fish Habitat (EFH): Merged Geology, Estuaries, Bathymetry, and Latitude off Southern 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: | -122.189109 | |
| East Coordinate: | -116.896132 | |
| North Coordinate: | 34.582644 | |
| South Coordinate: | 31.667778 | |
| Coverage Area: | west coast, southern California, Northwest Pacific Ocean | |
| Content Keywords | ||
| Theme Keywords: | seafloor, habitat, benthic, geophysical, bathymetry, latitude, marine, estuary, essential fish habitat (EFH) | |
| Place Keywords: | west coast, southern 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 | |