Campagnes Nizery: Togo 1 (26 et 27/01/83) et Togo 2 (07 au 10/06/83). Resultats des chalutages

This publication gives the results of the bottom trawlings made during the cruises Togo 1 and Togo 2 by the oceanographic research vessel "Andre Nizery" on the continental shelf of Togo during the estimation program of halieutic resources. The report includes: 1 - The report of the cruises Togo 1 and Togo 2; 2 - Some information on the presentation of the results; 3 - The trawl recording cards for the 2 cruises; 4 - The length frequency distributions of the measured samples.

Campagnes Nizery: Togo 3 (16 au 18/08/83) et Togo 4 (28 au 30/11/83). Resultats des chalutages

This publication gives the results of the bottom trawlings made during the cruises Togo 3 and logo 4 by the oceanographic research vessel "Andre NIZERY" on the continental shelf of Togo during the estimation program of halieutic resources. The report includes: 1 - The report of the cruises Togo 3 and Togo 4 2 - Some information on the presentation of the results 3 - The trawl recording cards for the 2 cruises 4 - The length frequency distributions of the measured samples.

Campagnes Nizery: Togo 5 (01 to 03/03/84) and Togo 6 (26 to 28/03/84). Resultats des chalutages

This publication gives the results of the bottom trawlings made during the cruises Togo 5 and Togo 6 by the oceanographic research vessel "Andre Nizery" on the continental shelf of Togo during the estimation program of halieutic resources. The report includes: 1 - the report of the cruises Togo 5 and Togo 6; 2 - Some information on the presentation of the results; 3 - the trawl recording maps for the 2 cruises; 4 - The length frequency distributions of the measured samples.

Survey report of NOAA Ship McArthur II cruises AR-04-04, AR-05-05 and AR-06-03: Habitat classification of side scan sonar imagery in support of deep-sea coral/sponge explorations at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary

Habitat mapping and characterization has been defined as a high-priority management issue for the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS), especially for poorly known deep-sea habitats that may be sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. As a result, a team of scientists from OCNMS, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), and other partnering institutions initiated a series of surveys to assess the distribution of deep-sea coral/sponge assemblages within the sanctuary and to look for evidence of potential anthropogenic impacts in these critical habitats. Initial results indicated that remotely delineating areas of hard bottom substrate through acoustic sensing could be a useful tool to increase the efficiency and success of subsequent ROV-based surveys of the associated deep-sea fauna. Accordingly, side scan sonar surveys were conducted in May 2004, June 2005, and April 2006 aboard the NOAA Ship McArthur II to: (1) obtain additional imagery of the seafloor for broader habitat-mapping coverage of sanctuary waters, and (2) help delineate suitable deep-sea coral/sponge habitat, in areas of both high and low commercial-fishing activities, to serve as sites for surveying-in more detail using an ROV on subsequent cruises. Several regions of the sea floor throughout the OCNMS were surveyed and mosaicked at 1-meter pixel resolution. Imagery from the side scan sonar mapping efforts was integrated with other complementary data from a towed camera sled, ROVs, sedimentary samples, and bathymetry records to describe geological and biological (where possible) aspects of habitat. Using a hierarchical deep-water marine benthic classification scheme (Greene et al. 1999), we created a preliminary map of various habitat polygon features for use in a geographical information system (GIS). This report provides a description of the mapping and groundtruthing efforts as well as results of the image classification procedure for each of the areas surveyed. (PDF contains 60 pages.)

Information on oceanographic cruises in the Mozambique Channel

The primary objectives of this data summary are to display features of the distribution of hydrographic and chemical parameters in the Mozambique Channel in a form which will be useful for oceanographers, and to serve as a basis for the processing of more recent data obtained since 1977.