Tim Battista

2015

2016

2017

The purpose of this project is to develop a benthic habitat map for uncharacterized areas between 30-100 m in depth on the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf to support the improvement of fisheries, and the management of essential fish habitats, MPAs, and priority sites in the USVI and broader jurisdiction. This habitat map will support these management actions by characterizing the distribution of mesophotic coral reef ecosystems, thereby providing a baseline to develop monitoring plans and evaluate changes in these systems over time. It will be developed using existing acoustic imagery and underwater videos collected by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and NOAA NCCOS since 2004. The CRCP and National Park Services (NPS) funded these past data collection efforts, which will be leveraged to develop higher order habitat products to support multiple uses. These higher order products will support local conservation in USVI, and assist the Coral Program in addressing its National Objectives of Emphasis, including supporting improved fisheries through benthic habitat mapping of the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf. It will also address the habitat mapping need identified in the USVI Coral Reef Management Priorities document aimed at supporting the improvement of local fisheries. The project area explicitly covers priority sites and areas of particular concern identified by local managers in the USVI Coral Reef Management Priorities and CRCP Mapping Achievements and Unmet Needs documents, including the mesophotic reefs south the STEER and Offshore Cays south of St. Thomas, and south of the Great Cruz Bay/Chocolate Hole in St. John. This project is also affiliated with and will support several other ongoing projects in the USVI, including supporting sampling design for the National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP, CRCP Project ID 456); and supporting the placement of the acoustic array for the NOAA MARFIN project identifying spawning aggregations sites and migration pathways for queen trigger and mutton snappers (NOAA-NMFS-SE-2013-2003417). The final products from this project will also feed into the CRCP funded effort to build a comprehensive decision-support framework tool to prioritize sites for conservation in the USVI (CRCP Project ID 837). Habitat mapping products will be developed using the semi-automated mapping protocols which the Biogeography Branch has pioneered for integrating remote sensing and in situ datasets. The resulting habitat map will depict the distribution, quantity, type, and density of habitats in the project region. Project partners include: NOAA Office of Coast Survey, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, the US Geological Survey, the University of the Virgin Islands, USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources, and the National Park Service (St. John). This project will leverage products from past CRCP investments over multiple years.

The products outlined here will provide a critical spatial framework for informing and understanding relationships in mesophotic coral reef ecosystems (~30-100 m depths) on the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf. Any project or management measure operating on the insular shelf will need these products to make better decisions, include addressing issues related to over-fishing, recreational/commercial fisheries, restoration, land-based sources of pollution, permitting activities, MPA identification, climate change, and scientific research. For example, the unified bathymetry surface developed during this project helped support the designed and selection of sample sites for CRCP’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program.

• Puerto Rico
• U.S. Virgin Islands

• N/A

Mapping

Closed

Completed

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A30081%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Developing%20A%20Benthic%20Habitat%20Map%20for%20the%20South%20Eastern%20Puerto%20Rican%20Shelf"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage