Beagle Marine Park Seafloor Backscatter Grids at 1-Meter Resolution

Beagle Marine Park in Bass Strait, Australia, is covered by 11 backscatter grids derived from multibeam sonar data, gridded at 1-meter spatial resolution and covering a combined area of 364 square kilometers. The data was collected by Geoscience Australia and the University of Tasmania from 17 to 26 June 2018 aboard the RV Bluefin. This survey was funded by the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub to establish baseline information for benthic habitats.

Use Cases

• Classifying benthic habitat types based on acoustic backscatter intensity.
• Establishing environmental baselines for marine park management plans.
• Integrating seafloor morphology data with subsequent imagery and biological survey data from the same project phases.

Strengths

• Data is gridded at a high 1-meter spatial resolution.
• Covers a specific, mapped area of 364 square kilometers.
• Associated with a detailed, cited post-survey report.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias from the single survey period in June 2018.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies (University of Tasmania).

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar data acquisition from the RV Bluefin.

Time Range

17 – 26 June 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:35:59.518841; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Beagle Marine Park, Bass Strait, Australia.