Furthermore, underwater video was recorded at each site to maintain a record of habitat condition. This video was reviewed by NOAA staff in the office to ensure correct habitat attribution was made in the field.
All errors were identified through these quality assurance techniques and corrected. This file is believed to be logically consistent.
At the start of every morning, the boat captain selected a general region to begin the day's work. Navigating to field locations was accomplished using a Garmin GPS 76 device with the uploaded GV site coordinates. The boat captain maneuvered the vessel to within 5 m of the target location and made every effort to maintain that location without jeopardizing crew and equipment safety. Once on site, NOAA scientists would simultaneously deploy a SeaViewer Sea-Drop 950 camera and begin logging a waypoint on a Trimble GeoXT GPS receive. While the video camera was capturing bottom imagery, an observer viewed the video real-time on a Panasonic Toughbook aboard the survey vessel. They categorized each site according to the levels of the habitat classification scheme: major and detailed geomorphological structure, major biological cover, percent major biological cover and percent coral cover. Data was entered into a custom data dictionary generated in Trimble Pathfinder Office software and loaded onto the Trimble data logger.