NOAA NCCOS Assessment: Seafloor Mapping Priorities for the West Coast

Twenty-six participants from NOAA's West Coast Deep Sea Coral Initiative and EXPRESS program contributed to this spatial prioritization effort. The dataset identifies ten high-priority locations for future seafloor mapping, sampling, and visual surveys offshore of California, Oregon, and Washington, primarily in depths less than 1,000 meters. It captures participant priorities, justifications, and data needs using a 10x10 minute grid cell framework.

Use Cases

• Coordinating multi-agency seafloor mapping campaigns based on identified high-priority grid cells.
• Planning benthic habitat surveys by analyzing the top data needs, such as bathymetry and habitat maps.
• Allocating research resources efficiently by understanding the primary justifications for priority areas, like exploration and biota.
• Supporting marine spatial planning decisions with geospatial data on collective scientific priorities.

Strengths

• Based on input from 26 expert participants from major NOAA initiatives.
• Identifies 10 specific high-priority locations for future work.
• Uses a structured spatial framework with 10x10 minute grid cells for precise analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts: last update dates differ significantly between sources (2019 vs. 2026).
• No column names or row counts are provided, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• License and author information is missing from all sources.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)

Collection Method

Priorities gathered via an online application where participants used virtual coins to denote priorities in grid cells, followed by statistical analysis.

Freshness

2026-04-10 19:47:55.593661

Geography

West Continental United States Coast (WCC), offshore of California, Oregon, and Washington.