Author Type

Faculty

Document Type

Report

Abstract

The purpose of this effort was to (1) provide a characterization of benthic habitats within the South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF) OP AREA cable corridor along deep fiber optic cable C/S 96 from a depth of ~30 m to the reported eastern seaward terminus on the Miami Terrace (~500 m depth), and (2) identify and estimate impacts to deep benthic habitat resources from cable infrastructure in the same corridor preparatory to an Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Assessment.

The project was carried out in response to a request from the SFOMF (a detachment of Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division [NSWCCD]). This effort was carried out within the SFOMF OP AREA located just south of the Port Everglades entrance channel in Broward County, Florida (Figure 1-1). The survey consisted of a videographic and still photographic survey executed using the NSWCCD’s Television Observed Nautical Grappling System (TONGS) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to examine a cable route and comparable areas without cables. The survey included a 26.2-km-long transect along a cable route, 1-km-long parallel transects 150 m on each side of the cable route between 30 m and 90 m depth, a 20.2-km-long transect ~1.6 km north of the cable route between 250 and 500 m depth, a 13.4-km-long transect ~2.2 km south of the cable route between 285 and 565 m depth, plus three north south oriented transects along the cable route. The total length of the survey was approximately 67 km (=~36 nm).

Tasks included (1) review of video and still photographic data for organism identification, (2) analyses of still images for substrate type, taxon abundances and density by habitat/substrate type and location, and percent cover by taxon, (3) characterization and mapping of benthic habitats/biological zones, and (4) comparison of Cable and Non-Cable habitats.

The data and analyses in this report are part of a larger study that also assessed cable impacts in seven selected shallower-water habitats (0-30 m) in the OP AREA. Major differences in methodologies between the shallow-water study and this one necessitated different approaches to data collection. Environments beyond scuba depth are inherently far more difficult of access, and data acquisition is more limited for a given time effort. In addition, resource management agencies (e.g., BOEM, NOAA, SAFMC) apply different regulatory criteria to shallow versus deeper-water habitats (e.g., Coral Habitat of Particular Concern for deep water corals; Section 2.4, below). The survey reported here was carried out at depths greater than recreational scuba diving limits (30 m). As a result, all data were collected remotely; results and analyses were based entirely on video and photographs, and all data were analyzed and reported to conform with agency criteria for deep-water habitats.

Although cable-associated EFH impacts may occur during cable deployment and continuously over the time cable remains on reef habitat, this project was not designed to and could not distinguish among impacts associated with deployment and those that have occurred since deployment. Similarly, it cannot anticipate the nature and breadth of future deployment impacts.

Publication Date

7-2012

Comments

Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Technical Report #143

Download

Share

COinS