Area of Operations: Madison-Swanson Fishery Reserve, Florida, west Florida Shelf, United States, Gulf of Mexico, North America, North Atlantic
Dates: March 21, 2005 to March 28, 2005
Chief scientist: Kathy Scanlon
Christopher Koenig, Chief Scientist, Florida State University
Objectives: Collect sediment and rock samples from shelf-edge paleoshorelines and video grouper spawning habitat using ROV and mixed-gas SCUBA divers.
Type of Activity: Sampling; Photography; Video; ROV; SCUBA diving;video
ROV
SCUBA diving
Information to be derived:
Age dates
Summary: The ROV was deployed at 19 sites both within the Madison Swanson Fishery Reserve and at unprotected areas outside the reserve. Video data and still photographs were collected at each site. At 4 sites Technical SCUBA divers, using mixed gas, were sent to the sea floor to collect rock samples with chisels and sledges. A total of 22 rock samples (most several inches to a foot in diameter) were collected. They will be analyzed for mineralogic composition and if possible dated and environment of deposition determined. The pre-cruise plan had included sediment and rock sampling in the Steamboat Lumps Fishery Reserve, but those goals were not achieved due to time lost to weather and equipment problems (ROV cable was caught in ship's screw and damaged, requiring retermination). Video data will be used by FSU collaborators to assess health of grouper spawning populations. Water samples were taken from inside a solution hole at one site and tested for salinity, which was 37 - 37.5 ppt, the same as the ambient water salinity measured about 10 feet above the sea floor. No water samples were saved. No sediment samples were collected.
Contact: Julie Knisel (jknisel@usgs.gov)
InfoBank: uses the identifier L-1-05-GM. Visit this site for more information.
Related Links:
|  - Download 05002.kml to view this field activity in Google Earth
| Publications resulting from these dataScanlon, Kathryn M., Waller, Rhian G., Sirotek, Alexander R., Knisel, Julia M., O'Malley, John J., and Alesandrini, Stian,2010, USGS cold-water coral geographic database; Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic, Version 1.0: U.S. Geolgical Survey Open-File Report 2008-1351, CD-ROM. (Also available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1351/)
Coleman, Felicia C., Koenig, Christopher C., Scanlon, Kathryn M., Heppell, Scott, Heppell, Selina, and Miller, Margaret W.,2010, Benthic habitat modification through excavation by red grouper, Epinephelus morio, in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico: The Open Fish Science Journal, v. 3: p. 1-15. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874401X01003010001)
Data Types and Locations:
| |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
