The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories conducts standardized fisheries independent resource surveys off the east coast of the United States to provide abundance and distribution information to support regional and international stock assessments. A pilot pelagic longline survey was conducted in 2004 off the east coast of the United States. The objective of the survey was to examine the feasibility of using pelagic longline gear to collect fisheries-independent data on stocks of offshore fishes and to establish protocols for future use. Additional objectives included examining the distribution and relative abundance of pelagic fishes in the region and collect biological and environmental data.

This expedition is the first of three cruises for the Deep SEARCH project focused on exploring and characterizing seeps, corals, and canyon environments along the Atlantic margin.

To support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems, from 20101007 to 20101105, reef fish assessment surveys were conducted, as a part of Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA), during the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) Cruise HA1008 in the Main Hawaiian Islands region by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). During the cruise, 15 REA sites were surveyed at Oahu in the Main Hawaiian Islands region. At each REA site, fish biologists entered the water and conducted a fine-scale (~700 m^2) and high degree of taxonomic resolution REA survey to assess and monitor species diversity, size distribution, and abundance of fish in shallow-water hard-bottom (less than 30 m) habitats. Reef fish assessment surveys were focused on cataloging the diversity (species richness), abundance (numeric density) and biomass (fish mass per unit area) of diurnally active reef fish assemblages. The stationary point count (SPC) method was used to quantify reef fish species. Two divers lay out a 30 m transect line, and position themselves at the 7.5 and 22.5 meter marks. The SPC biologist then records estimated size and abundance of all fish within a visually estimated 15-m diameter cylinder centered on the stationary diver (7.5-m radius, total area ~ 177m^2 per cylinder). The diver first spends 5 minutes identifying all fish species in the cylindrical area, then proceeds to count and estimate size (total length) for each in a series of "instantaneous" point counts or sweeps of the cylinder. Fish were identified at the species level, wherever possible. All reef-associated fish, including those in the water column, were surveyed. The survey time for each stationary point count survey was approximately 20 min and generally four stationary point count surveys (two per diver) were conducted at each fish REA site. After completing REA surveys, divers noted the presence, at the survey site, of any unusual fish species not counted during SPC counts, in order to facilitate species lists per location.

To support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems, from 20120401 to 20120426, reef fish assessment surveys were conducted, as a part of Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA), during the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) Cruise HA1201 in the American Samoa region by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). During the cruise, 30 REA sites were surveyed at Ofu & Olosega in the American Samoa region. At each REA site, fish biologists entered the water and conducted a fine-scale (~700 m^2) and high degree of taxonomic resolution REA survey to assess and monitor species diversity, size distribution, and abundance of fish in shallow-water hard-bottom (less than 30 m) habitats. Reef fish assessment surveys were focused on cataloging the diversity (species richness), abundance (numeric density) and biomass (fish mass per unit area) of diurnally active reef fish assemblages. The stationary point count (SPC) method was used to quantify reef fish species. Two divers lay out a 30 m transect line, and position themselves at the 7.5 and 22.5 meter marks. The SPC biologist then records estimated size and abundance of all fish within a visually estimated 15-m diameter cylinder centered on the stationary diver (7.5-m radius, total area ~ 177m^2 per cylinder). The diver first spends 5 minutes identifying all fish species in the cylindrical area, then proceeds to count and estimate size (total length) for each in a series of "instantaneous" point counts or sweeps of the cylinder. Fish were identified at the species level, wherever possible. All reef-associated fish, including those in the water column, were surveyed. The survey time for each stationary point count survey was approximately 20 min and generally four stationary point count surveys (two per diver) were conducted at each fish REA site. After completing REA surveys, divers noted the presence, at the survey site, of any unusual fish species not counted during SPC counts, in order to facilitate species lists per location.

To support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems, from 20101107 to 20101208, reef fish assessment surveys were conducted, as a part of Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA), in the Main Hawaiian Islands region by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). 25 REA sites were surveyed at Oahu in the Main Hawaiian Islands region. At each REA site, fish biologists entered the water and conducted a fine-scale (~700 m^2) and high degree of taxonomic resolution REA survey to assess and monitor species diversity, size distribution, and abundance of fish in shallow-water hard-bottom (less than 30 m) habitats. Reef fish assessment surveys were focused on cataloging the diversity (species richness), abundance (numeric density) and biomass (fish mass per unit area) of diurnally active reef fish assemblages. The stationary point count (SPC) method was used to quantify reef fish species. Two divers lay out a 30 m transect line, and position themselves at the 7.5 and 22.5 meter marks. The SPC biologist then records estimated size and abundance of all fish within a visually estimated 15-m diameter cylinder centered on the stationary diver (7.5-m radius, total area ~ 177m^2 per cylinder). The diver first spends 5 minutes identifying all fish species in the cylindrical area, then proceeds to count and estimate size (total length) for each in a series of "instantaneous" point counts or sweeps of the cylinder. Fish were identified at the species level, wherever possible. All reef-associated fish, including those in the water column, were surveyed. The survey time for each stationary point count survey was approximately 20 min and generally four stationary point count surveys (two per diver) were conducted at each fish REA site. After completing REA surveys, divers noted the presence, at the survey site, of any unusual fish species not counted during SPC counts, in order to facilitate species lists per location.

Shallow Corals were extracted from the Benthic Cover described herein by exporting all features classified as "B2.1.2" within the Biotic Cover Code field. Benthic cover (habitat) maps are derived from aerial imagery, underwater photos, acoustic surveys, and data gathered from sediment samples. Shallow to moderate-depth benthic habitat information assists ecosystem-based marine resource management. Many habitats, including hard and soft corals, are home to a diversity of marine organisms, which provide many important ecosystem services, including fishing, tourism, water quality enhancement, and shoreline protection. Coral reef ecosystems and associated bottom types are under increasing pressure from environmental and anthropogenic stressors. Mitigating these threats requires analyzing their spatial distribution, making benthic habitat mapping a key component to the conservation and management activities of state and federal agencies.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (NURC/UNCW) coordinated an acoustic survey in portions of the Oculina Habitat Area of Particular Concern from June 14-19, 2005. This metadata record is the parent record for this multi-beam echosounder (MBES) survey, which includes the following products: 1) bathymetric grid, 2) XYZ ascii table created from the grid, 3) colored coded shaded geotiffs from the grid, 4) backscatter mosaic, 5) XYA (amplitude) ascii table created from the mosaic, and 6) geotif of backscatter draped on the bathymetric grid. All products are available through an on-line Oculina Geographic Information system (www.uncw.edu/oculina) and on an OGIS CD. Some data sets are also posted on NOAA's Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) at www.coris.noaa.gov. Another product that will not be distributed, but will be used as input to habitat classification software (QTC MultiView (website)), are raw data files logged to disk using the the Simrad EM3002 MBES data acquisition software. These raw files contain packets of information (depth soundings, navigation, attitude, sound velocity profiles, UTC time) that the acquisition software logged sequentially in time. The raw data format is available from Kongsberg-Simrad (website). The MBES system was provided by Seafloor Systems Inc. and the support vessel was UNCW's 70-ft. R/V Cape Fear. This survey is part of an on-going partnership effort funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). This survey was funded by a CRCP grant to Andrew David, NOAA Fisheries - Panama City, and Andrew Shepard, NURC/UNCW. In addition to partners above, other partners include UNCW's Spatial Analysis Lab, US Geological Survey, and the S. Atlantic fishery Management Council.

Since 1990, biota of the coral reef ecosystems have been annualy monitored at stations located at and in the vicinity of the Waianae Ocean Sewage Outfall. NODC Accession 0000794 contains surveys of 1990-1998. This new update includes surveys from years 2004-2010. Data from 1999 to 2003 have not been released. Fish census data 2004-2010 are provided in a MS Excel spreadsheet. Macroinvertebrate data 2009-2010 are provided in JMP Data Tables. Coral and substrate data 2003-2010 are provided in tables within a Adobe Acrobat (PDF) document.

These reports provide the results of nine years (1990-98) of an annual quantitative monitoring of shallow marine communities inshore of the Sand Island Ocean Outfall, Oahu, Hawaii. This monitoring effort focuses on benthic and fish community structure and is designed to detect changes in these communities. Marine communities offshore of Honolulu have received considerable perturbation over the last 100 years. Dumping of raw sewage in shallow water, which occurred from 1955 to 1977, was halted in 1978; however, point and nonpoint sources of pollution from both urban activities and industry continue. All of these disturbances may serve to obscure any impacts that may be caused by treated effluent discharged from the deep-ocean outfall. The marine communities show a considerable range in development that is probably related to historical impacts. Stations have been located to take advantage of these gradients. Analysis of the nine years of data showed that there has been no statistically significant change in any of the biological parameters measured in this study other than for the mean number of invertebrate species and numbers of individual invertebrates encountered per transect. In these cases the data for 1998 showed significantly greater numbers of species and individuals over other years. These changes are probably the result of higher than usual counts of the Christmas tree worm Spirobranchus giganteus corniculatus, as well as just more invertebrate species present at most stations.

The national database of deep sea coral observations. Northeast version 1.0. ***** This database was developed by the NOAA NOS NCCOS CCMA Biogeography office as part of a New York Offshore Spatial Planning project.