Areal extent of surface canopy kelp forests in Southeast Alaska during Summer 2017

The purpose of this dataset was to map the areal extent of surface canopy kelp beds (bull kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana and giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera) in Southeast Alaska. These data were collected to ground-truth locations of surface canopy kelp beds obtained from drone and Landsat satellite imagery. For each kelp bed, a vessel was driven around the perimeter and GPS locations were recorded. These data were collected as part of a larger, interdisciplinary project (Apex Predators, Ecosystems, and Community Sustainability or APECS; http://apecs-ak.org/) aimed to assess the impacts of sea otter recolonization on the natural and human ecosystems of Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska. Other datasets related to APECS are archived with KNB.