Open-File Report 2005-1153
Version 1.0

Multibeam Bathymetry and Backscatter Data: Northeastern Channel Islands Region, Southern California

Peter Dartnell¹, Guy Cochrane², and Mary Elaine Dunaway³

¹ - U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA
² - U.S. Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, CA
³ - Minerals Management Service, Camarillo, CA

²⁰⁰⁵

Note: On June 18, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed a Secretarial Order formally changing the name of the Minerals Management Service to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).

 Summary

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Minerals Management Service (MMS) conducted multibeam mapping in the eastern Santa Barbara Channel and northeastern Channel Islands region from August 8 to15, 2004 aboard the R/V Maurice Ewing. The survey was directed and funded by the Minerals Management Service, which is interested in maps of hardbottom habitats, particularly natural outcrops, that support reef communities in areas affected by oil and gas activity. The maps are also useful to biologists studying fish that use the platforms and the sea floor beneath them as habitat.

The survey collected bathymetry and corrected, co-registered acoustic backscatter using a Kongsberg Simrad EM1002 multibeam echosounder that was mounted on the hull of the R/V Maurice Ewing. Three main regions were mapped during the survey including: (1) the Eastern Santa Barbara Channel adjacent to an area previously mapped with multibeam-sonar by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (see the MBARI Santa Barbara Basin Multibeam Survey web page), (2) the Footprint area south of Anacapa Island, which has been studied extensively by rockfish biologists and is considered a good site for a marine protected area, and (3) part of the submarine canyons along the continental slope south of Port Hueneme. These data will be used to support a number of new and ongoing projects including, habitat mapping, shelf and slope processes, and offshore hazards and resouces. For more information on the mapping mission see "Mapping Benthic Habitat Around Oil Platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, California".

This Open-File Report publishes the multibeam bathymetry and acoustic backscatter data in a number of different formats, with Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata, along with maps and oblique views of particular areas of interest.

FGDC Metadata

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