Depth Contours for select locations across the U.S. Pacific Islands

These data are depth contours (isobaths) derived at 50 meters for most islands and reefs in the Mariana Archipelago, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. Contours at 10- or 20-meter depths have also been derived for a subset of the same locations. These contours are derived from bathymetry sources including multibeam data collected by Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) since 2003, NOAA nautical charts, estimated depths derived from satellite images, and other sources of bathymetry collected by various agencies and entities.

These data were initially requested by the NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office Protected Resources Division to assist with management of 15 coral species that occur in the Indo-Pacific and are listed threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Some of these coral species are known to be found in American Samoa, the Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. The effort is funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. These data can also be used for broader purposes including general references for cartographic purposes, base information for characterization of habitats and marine organisms, and as an explanatory variable for analyses.

For each region (Marianas [Guam and CNMI], American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas), a shapefile containing the 50-meter depth contours has been prepared for each of the islands/reefs/banks/atolls in the region. A ReadMe file for each region containing the details for each island/reef/bank/atoll shapefile is included. An additional zip file contains the 10- or 20-m depth contour shapefiles that have been prepared for a subset of the islands, and also includes a ReadMe file for each region. In a few cases, islands have partial contours for the specific depth requested due to the limited availability of bathymetric data for those particular places.

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

Mariana Archipelago including Agrihan, Aguijan, Alamagan, Asuncion, Eleven Mile Bank/Reef, Farallon de Medinilla, Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Galvez Bank, Guam, Guguan, Maug, Pagan, Rota, Saipan, Sarigan, Supply Reef, Tinian, and Zealandia Bank.

American Samoa including Tutuila, Manu'a Islands (Ofu, Olosega, and Tau), Rose Atoll, Swains, and South Bank.

Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA) including Baker, Howland, Jarvis, and Wake islands, Kingman Reef, and Johnston and Palmyra atolls.

Not applicable

Not applicable

NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) Data Sharing Recommendations, version 9.0 updated August 12, 2015:

CREP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. CREP has a very diverse set of field activities that generates large volumes of data using an array of data collection protocols.

The following recommendations are for your consideration as you use this data:

1) Data analyses should take all field exigencies into account. The most effective way to do this would be active collaboration with CREP principal investigators.

2) In all presentations, product releases, or publications using data generated by CREP, proper acknowledgement of both CREP and the individuals responsible for data collection is expected. Citing the DOI (if available) is preferred, a non-DOI example is listed below.

3) If you collect or generate data for the same study areas, CREP requests that you share relevant information on complimentary data collections.

4) Those receiving data are strongly urged to inform the CREP Data Management Team of any errors and discrepancies that are discovered during the course of using these data. They are further urged to bring to the attention of the Team all problems and difficulties encountered in using these data. This information is necessary in order to improve the collections and to facilitate more efficient and economical data processing and retrieval. The users are asked to supply copies of any missing data that may be located, and to provide information as to significant subsets and special aggregations of data that are developed in using the material provided.

Example citation:

"This publication makes use of data products provided by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors.”

Data can be accessed online via the Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center website at https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/pibhmc_documentation.htm.

None

These data are not to be used for navigation purposes.

Please cite NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) when using the data.

Example:

Cite as: Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2016). Depth Contours for select locations across the U.S. Pacific Islands. Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center. Unpublished Dataset. [access date]

None

None

Contours were generated using tools available in ArcGIS versions 9.3 and 10.1.

Spatial reference information for each shapefile is included in each shapefile's projection (.prj) file that can be read by any text reader. These files are included in the download file.

Gridded bathymetry compiled from multibeam data collected by NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) since 2003 was the main data source used to derive the contours. Multibeam bathymetry gaps were filled by other data sources including pseudobathymetry derived from satellite images, NOAA nautical charts, and other bathymetry sources collected by various agencies to generate a continuous contour at a location.

The accuracy of the contours inherit the accuracy of source bathymetry. The attribute and positional accuracy of the gridded bathymetry are reported in the corresponding metadata.

The contours were derived using a consistent method between the source bathymetry; however, no effort was made to assure the comparability of the multibeam bathymetry to the other bathymetry sources.

The contours were derived for locations where bathymetry data is available. Remote areas where no depth information is available are not included.

Depth contours are derived by linearly connecting the locations of equal depth values. Therefore the precision of the contours is inherited from the precision of the source bathymetry data. The precision of the gridded bathymetry is reported in the corresponding metadata.

Derivation of the contours are complete.

The contours were derived by a consistent method using Esri's ArcGIS Toolbox.

Contours for each location were visually inspected by CREP researchers.

The contours are an interim product prepared as part of a funded project and do not meet the overall needs of said project and will therefor be replaced by more relevant products upon completion of the funded project.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

All contours were created from source gridded bathymetry using the Contour tool available in Esri’s ArcToolbox. The source bathymetry is listed in a ReadMe.txt file for each region. If the bathymetry is not available online to download, contact the distributor or the point of contact.