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

Publication Date

2012

Comments

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Technical Report Number 143.

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