Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Geospatial, temperature, and depth data collected during towed-diver surveys of coral reef ecosystems across the U.S. Pacific Islands from 2000-09-09 to 2017-06-20 (NCEI Accession 0189889)

The geospatial, temperature and depth data included in this dataset are from towed-diver surveys (also referred to as towboard surveys) of coral reef ecosystems conducted during Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) cruises to the Hawaiian and Mariana Archipelagos, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas from 2000 to 2017 by the Ecosystem Sciences Division (formerly known as the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC).

Generally, the towed-diver survey method involved towing a pair of SCUBA divers—one benthic and one fish—behind a small boat for 50 minutes, approximately following the ~15-m depth contour and covering a linear distance of about 2-3 kilometers per survey. A complete 50-minute towed-diver survey is divided into ten 5-minute segments, and up to 6 towed-diver surveys were conducted per day.

Each diver was equipped with a towboard outfitted with instrumentation and used to record observations, and the divers attempted to maintain position ~1 meter above the surface of the reef for the duration of the survey. Both towboards were equipped with a SeaBird™ SBE39 temperature/depth sensor that recorded water temperature and depth every 5 seconds. The survey tracks were also recorded every 5 seconds using a GPS receiver located on the small boat. The survey tracks were georeferenced and a script was applied to 1) adjust the GPS waypoints from the boat's position to the estimated positions of the divers while conducting the surveys, 2) correlate the associated temperature and depth data, and 3) lace the waypoints together (with the merged temperature and depth data) into 5-min segments and tow tracks. The dataset includes the adjusted dive points, as well as the segments and tow tracks which are provided as shapefiles.