78601 Entity Published / External 78600 National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Annotated Benthic Images Collected During Photoquadrat Surveys at Permanent Sites across the U.S. Pacific Islands since 2012 Data Set Completed Column descriptions for the annotations of benthic image analysis results for fixed permanent sites. Data Table Yes GISDAT Benthic image analysis results for stratified random sites Datasets before 2023 had DATE_ formatted as d-mmm-yy. Updated to machine-readable format in 2023 YYYY-MM-DD. In 2026, DEPTH_SOURCE was added. From 2024 depths were not collected in situ during benthic surveys, and instead depths were derived from other surveys at the site including structure-from-motion photogrammetry and fish stationary-point-count surveys. In 2026, CLIMATE_STATION_YN was deprecated since it is no longer maintained. PERM_SITE is the primary flag to distinguish between a fixed and random site. SURVEY_TYPE TEXT No No Active Identifies the ESD team that conducted the survey, typically 'Fish' or 'Benthic' for stratified random surveys, or 'Oceanography' for climate surveys at permanent sites. 1 ROUNDID NUMERIC 22 Yes No 28 0 Active Unique Identifier auto-assigned by database for ROUND record (corresponds to mission, cruise, cruise leg, etc.) 2 MISSIONID TEXT 30 Yes No Active Mission Identifier typically assigned by PIFSC 3 REGION_NAME TEXT 30 No No Active One of the five Pacific Island regions ESD surveys: Main Hawaiian islands, Northwestern Hawaiian islands, American Samoa, Marianas, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. 4 ISLAND TEXT 150 No No Active Island or Atoll surveyed 5 SITEVISITID NUMERIC No No Active Unique identifier created each time a SITE is surveyed on a DATE_. 5 SITE TEXT 150 No No Active The unique identifier for site. Typically 'OCC' followed by 3 letter island code, and 3 digit number for PIFSC ESD established sites. Sites with only a 3-letter island code and site number (usually 2-4 digits) are benthic permanent sites that are not part currently part of NCRMP. 6 LATITUDE NUMERIC 22 No No 38 8 Active Latitude in decimal degrees, WGS84, for the given SITE. 7 LONGITUDE NUMERIC 22 No No 28 8 Active Longitude in decimal degrees, WGS84 for the given SITE. 8 REEF_ZONE TEXT 150 No No Active The reef zone for the given site (Forereef, Backreef or Lagoon) 9 DEPTH_BIN TEXT 60 No No Active Classification of depth (shallow, mid, deep) based on midpoint between minimum and maximum depths of replicates at this site. Shallow = 0-6m, Mid = 6-18m, Deep = 18-30m. 10 PERM_SITE NUMERIC 22 No No 5 0 Inactive Permanent site flag, yes = -1. May only be present for sites established prior to 2023. 12 MIN_DEPTH NUMERIC 22 No No 38 8 Active Minimum depth (measured in feet), typically only recorded during 'Benthic' surveys (refer to SURVEY_TYPE). May be null for photos collected during fish and oceanographic surveys. For oceanographic surveys (depth_source = 'occ') the depth is populated from the referential site depth of the fixed site. 13 DEPTH_SOURCE TEXT No No Active Indicates where depth values come from. 'Site' indicates it was measured during an situ benthic coral demography survey, 'fish' indicates it came from min and max depths of the fish stationary-point-count survey area, a 7.5 meter radius circle, 'sfm' indicates it came from the min and max depths of markers laid on the benthos for structure-from-motion photogrammetry, a 3x15 m or 3x20 m area, 'occ' indicates depths were taken from the reference depth of the fixed site. Null if no source available. Typically Mid sites without depths are at 15m. 13 MAX_DEPTH NUMERIC 22 No No 28 8 Active Maximum depth (measured in feet), typically only recorded during 'Benthic' surveys (refer to SURVEY_TYPE). May be null for photos collected during fish and oceanographic surveys. For oceanographic surveys (depth_source = 'occ') the depth is populated from the referential site depth of the fixed site. 14 DATE_ DATE 7 Yes No Active Date the survey was conducted (YYYY-MM-DD). 15 IMAGE_NAME TEXT 4000 No No Active Image name (SITE_YEAR_REP_PHOTOID) 16 OBS_YEAR NUMERIC 16 No No Active 4-digit year the survey was conducted (DATE_). 17 REP TEXT 4 No No Active Letter associated to replicate (A, B, C, or D), only applicable before 2018. Transitioned to 'REPLICATE' for 2018+ 17 REPLICATE TEXT No No Active Letter associated to replicate (A, B) starting in 2018 (REP column in previous years). Letter associated to replicate / transect for the survey. In 2013 and 2016, Rep A is for reef fish surveys and Rep A or B is for coral demographic surveys. In 2019, all fish and coral surveys are rep A. If no letter, it refers to photo number: Photo 1-9 = 0 Photo 10-19 = 1 Photo 20-29 = 2 Photo 30-39 = 3 18 PHOTOID TEXT 4000 No No Active Sequential image number along transect, usually 1-30, though some sites may have less than or exceed 30 images. 19 ANALYST TEXT 20 No No Active Username of the person that annotated the images. The analyst for automated annotations (as opposed to annotations generated by humans) is ALLEVIATE (aka the CoralNet Robot). 20 TIER_1 TEXT 5 No No Active Code for CATEGORY NAME. 21 CATEGORY_NAME TEXT 20 No No Active Category classification for the point on the analyzed image (X POS, Y POS). Taxa/functional group includes: coral, coralline alga, macroalga, mobile fauna, sediment, sessile invertebrate, soft coral, tape and wand, turf alga, and unclassified. 22 TIER_2 TEXT 5 No No Active Code for SUBCATEGORY NAME. 23 SUBCATEGORY_NAME TEXT 50 No No Active Subcategory classification name for the point on the analyzed image (X POS, Y POS). Includes morphology for hard corals and functional groups (giant clam, zoanthid, etc.) 24 TIER_3 TEXT 5 No No Active Code for GENERA NAME. 25 GENERA_NAME TEXT 50 No No Active Genus taxonomic name for the point on the analyzed image (X POS, Y POS) or the subcategory classification/description. 26 X_POS NUMERIC 22 No No 38 Active X position of the analyzed point on the image. 27 Y_POS NUMERIC 22 No No Active Y position of the analyzed point on the image. gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:78601 Brighton Hedger 2025-11-18T03:45:04 Lori Luers 2026-08-21T02:00:13 2026-08-21 Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center PIFSC 1845 Wasp Blvd. Honolulu HI 96818 USA 808-725-5300 https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 1001 Public No 1 Year