AFSC/ABL: Multibeam Database

Seafloor habitat maps have been created using high resolution multibeam sonar with co-registered backscatter at various locations throughout the Alaska Region. Most of the mapping in the GOA is in the form of postage-stamps ranging in size from 27 km2 to 790 km2. Some of this mapping was in cooperation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Such mapped sites in the GOA were generally selected in the areas of fisheries for rockfish (Sebastes spp.). The selection of specific sites to map were influenced by budget and logistic constraints that in some cases limited the fishery habitat mapping to areas near concurrent areas being mapped by NOAAs Office of Coast Survey. In contrast for the Aleutian Islands, a systematic design was used to select sites to map that enabled a relatively substantial area of seafloor to be characterized. In theory such a systematic design allows extrapolation to unmapped areas. Database includes bathymetry and backscatter data files as well as a habitat typing spreadsheet for all areas classified using a deep-water marine benthic habitat scheme modified after Green et al. (1999).