Benthic Images from Towed-Diver Surveys in the Main Hawaiian Islands to Assess the Mass Coral Bleaching Event from 2015-11-03 to 2015-11-18 (NCEI Accession 0157611)

A team from the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) deployed on a two-week research cruise in November 2015 to evaluate the impacts of the 2015 mass coral bleaching event in the Main Hawaiian Islands via towed-diver surveys. Areas surveyed included south Oahu, west Maui, Lana’i, and west Hawaii island. Over the course of 10 survey days, the team surveyed approximately 90 km of 15-m wide transects at depths ranging from 2 to 10 m.

Data provided in this dataset include benthic images that were collected during the towed-diver surveys from a camera that was mounted to the towboard. A downward-facing DSLR camera with strobes collected these photographic quadrat data by capturing an image of the benthos at 15-second intervals during the surveys.

Two additional datasets were collected during the surveys and are documented separately. Towed divers recorded visual estimates of percentage of live coral that was pale and bleached, as well as presence/absence data of condition by generic composition. Oceanographic data was collected continuously throughout each survey with a suite of sensors mounted to the towboard recording conductivity, temperature, depth, fluorometry (chlorophyll-a), turbidity and dissolved oxygen.