National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of coral reef fish communities in St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands from 2013-07-08 to 2013-07-19 and from 2015-07-13 to 2015-07-24 (NCEI Accession 0151731)

The Belt Transect method is used to conduct fish surveys in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) as part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). The Belt Transect method collects and reports information on species composition, density, size, abundance and derived metrics (e.g. species richness, diversity). Surveys are concurrent with and along the same transect as the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) benthic survey. Data provided in this data set were collected around the USVI as part of NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)-led missions in collaboration with partners at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Fisheries Science Center, the National Park Service, USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources, University of the Virgin Islands, University of Miami, Nova Southeastern University, The Nature Conservancy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.