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PCMSC Marine Facility (MarFac) Active

By Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center July 1, 2021

Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility, or MarFac

Equipment

A man wearing safety gear stands on the fantail of a small boat preparing a box core for deployment.

Learn about our engineering, design, mechanical, and technical capabilities, and the various field equipment we use on land and beaches, off of boats in the nearshore environment and shallow waters, and off of large ships in deeper waters.

Field Equipment and Capabilities

Vessels

A metal boat sits on a towing trailer in a parking lot.

Learn about the different types of vessels we use in and around rivers, bays, coastal areas, and the deep ocean.

Our Vessels

Our Team

Three men working on the back of a small boat operating gear and moving equipment.

Meet our team of field specialists at MarFac, who run the gamut from coastal and marine field equipment designers to engineers, boat operators, and mechanics.

Our Team
A group of people enter a building at the loading dock, walking up a loading ramp.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Loading dock entrance to the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's Marine Facility in Santa Cruz, California.

MarFac is the operational arm of PCMSC. MarFac staff provide engineering, mechanical, and electronics expertise for field operations along the coast, in the nearshore environment, and in the deeper waters of the ocean.

 

Shipping/Freight Address:

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility

2831 Mission St.

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

A man, wearing safety gear and holding a pen, sits at a work station on a boat with a folder open in front of him.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
Ocean engineer Gerry Hatcher, of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC), sits at a desk on board the USGS boat Sallenger. He and a team of scientists from PCMSC and sister team St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center are near Eastern Dry Rocks reef off the coast of Key West National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Gerry is keeping notes while the special camera system that he invented and developed is towed in the water.The system is called “SQUID-5” (Structure-from-Motion Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with 5 cameras). SQUID-5 is towed over an area of interest, in this case a coral reef ecosystem, to collect high-resolution georeferenced imagery that is used to make 3D maps of the seafloor.These high-res maps allow the USGS to detect millimeter-scale changes in seafloor elevation and coral reef structure. This information can be used to help track the progress of restoration efforts being done by partners such as the NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary over the next two decades.
A woman and a man stand on the edge of a ship and swing a boom out over the water, with instruments attached
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
Jenny McKee and Peter Dal Farro of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Marine Facility swing a pair of seismic sources, also called air guns, and the gun hanger, out over the water to deploy them during the 2018 MATRIX cruise. Scripps Institution of Oceanography's seismic streamer is coiled on the blue winch in the foreground.
Photo of a floating coring rig with metal A-frame support structure and platforms to accommodate operators at two levels.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s coring rig, built by Uwitec of Mondsee, Austria. The coring unit is a motor-powered piston corer with steel weights.
A man wearing safety gear and a warm hat sits in a pontoon boat in very calm water setting up equipment, bridge in background.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
Marine engineering technician Pete Dal Ferro sets up a newly acquired, portable, single-beam echo sounder on the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, California. The new device, called CEESCOPE, collects bathymetric (depth) data and also records features of the subsurface. All the components are easy for one person to set up and operate, with GPS and an LCD touch screen. This day survey is part of ongoing, seasonal surveys in the nearshore regions of Monterey Bay to help characterize the sediment budget of the area. Credit: Andrew Stevens, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
View looking down from a bridge and onto a boat's stern and cabin top as it passes under the bridge.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
View looks down from a bridge as USGS research vessel R/V Parke Snavely passes beneath. Credit: Jenny McKee, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Two people hold onto a large metal tripod with instruments suspended from a cable as they guide it into the water.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
USGS physical scientist Cordell Johnson, at left, and USGS research oceanographer Jessie Lacy, both from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, guide a tripod with instruments into the waters of the Mokelumne River near the confluence with the San Joaquin River. The Mokelumne is part of the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in California, located east of San Francisco Bay and south of Sacramento. Credit: John Koster, USGS

Learn more about MarFac.

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Photo looking up at a man wearing safety gear and cold weather clothing holding a big drill with puffy white clouds in the sky.

PCMSC MarFac Field Equipment and Capabilities

Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility’s vast array of field equipment, sampling devices, and mapping systems, and our capabilities. Our engineers, designers, mechanics, and technicians have also designed and developed some of the specialized field equipment we use in field operations in the nearshore, in the deep sea, and on land.
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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PCMSC MarFac Field Equipment and Capabilities

Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility’s vast array of field equipment, sampling devices, and mapping systems, and our capabilities. Our engineers, designers, mechanics, and technicians have also designed and developed some of the specialized field equipment we use in field operations in the nearshore, in the deep sea, and on land.
Learn More
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Three men working on the back of a small boat operating gear and moving equipment.

PCMSC MarFac Team

Below is the list of our fieldwork specialists at PCMSC's Marine Facility, or MarFac.
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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PCMSC MarFac Team

Below is the list of our fieldwork specialists at PCMSC's Marine Facility, or MarFac.
Learn More
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Small silver metal boat with USGS lettering on the side, water is splashing up on the side and a small wake is formed.

PCMSC MarFac Vessels

The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center uses a wide variety of vessels, from kayaks to open-ocean ships, to conduct fieldwork. Most vessels are managed by our Marine Facility, or MarFac.
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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PCMSC MarFac Vessels

The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center uses a wide variety of vessels, from kayaks to open-ocean ships, to conduct fieldwork. Most vessels are managed by our Marine Facility, or MarFac.
Learn More

Overlapping seabed images and location data acquired using the SQUID-5 system at Eastern Dry Rocks coral reef, Florida, in May 2021, with derived point cloud, digital elevation model and orthomosaic of submerged topography

Underwater images were collected using a towed-surface vehicle with multiple downward-looking underwater cameras developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The system is named the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with Five Cameras (SQUID-5). The raw images and associated navigation data were collected at Eastern Dry Rocks, a coral reef located within the Flo
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Point clouds, bathymetric maps, and orthoimagery generated from overlapping lakebed images acquired with the SQUID-5 system near Dollar Point, Lake Tahoe, CA, March 2021

Underwater images were collected in Lake Tahoe, CA, using a recently developed towed-surface vehicle with multiple downward-looking underwater cameras. The system is named the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with Five Cameras (SQUID-5). The data were collected March 10th and 11th of 2021 to assess the accuracy, precision, and effectiveness of the new SQUID-5 came
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Multichannel Seismic-Reflection and Navigation Data Collected Using Sercel GI Guns and Geometrics GeoEel Digital Streamers During the Mid-Atlantic Resource Imaging Experiment (MATRIX), USGS Field Activity 2018-002-FA

In summer 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey partnered with the U.S Department of Energy and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to conduct the Mid-Atlantic Resources Imaging Experiment (MATRIX) as part of the U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project. The field program objectives were to acquire high-resolution 2-dimensional multichannel seismic-reflection and split-beam echosounder data along
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

SQUID-5 structure-from-motion point clouds, bathymetric maps, orthomosaics, and underwater photos of coral reefs in Florida, 2019

The new structure-from-motion (SfM) quantitative underwater imaging device with five cameras (SQUID-5) was tested in July 2019 at Crocker Reef in the Florida Keys. The SQUID-5 was developed to meet the unique challenges of collecting SfM underwater imagery, including multiple cameras with different perspectives, accurate geographic locations of images, accurate and precise scaling of derived surfa
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Below are multimedia items associated with Marfac

An all-terrain vehicle equipped with GPS and other devices sits on the beach and a personal watercraft is in background.
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Two people on personal watercraft maneuver separately and spaced apart in a beach setting near a jetty.
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A coastline with trees on the beach berm on left, two people looking out at two jet skis, waves are gentle, sun is gleaming.
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Two adjacent poles holding video cameras near top, one control box near bottom, one man holding small tool near control box.
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person standing up riding a personal watercraft across small ocean swells, with buildings and a long pier in the background
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Gerry Hatcher poses with the camera system he helped create, with all kinds of gadgets and wires in a metal frame.
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USGS scientist Jackson Currie navigates a personal water craft through waves, collecting bathymetric data in Monterey, CA
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A man navigates a personal watercraft with equipment mounted on it through choppy waves, he's looking over his left shoulder.
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Smiling man wearing safety gear, standing up on personal watercraft moving through the water, giving the thumb's-up sign.
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Small silver metal boat with USGS lettering on the side, water is splashing up on the side and a small wake is formed.
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A small boat in a calm area of water with a spit of land in the distance, and snow-capped mountain peak in the far background.
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Two men look at computer screens on a boat, one man is seated at the keyboard and the other looks over his shoulder.
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USGS scientists navigate personal water craft around San Francisco Bay, collecting bathymetric data.
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Man in foul-weather gear and hard hat sits in a parking lot on all-terrain vehicle equipped with GPS, ocean in background.
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Man sits on a personal watercraft floating idle in the water, wearing safety equipment, watercraft is equipped with gear.
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Below are publications associated with this project.

Accurate bathymetric maps from underwater digital imagery without ground control

Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry can be used with digital underwater photographs to generate high-resolution bathymetry and orthomosaics with millimeter-to-centimeter scale resolution at relatively low cost. Although these products are useful for assessing species diversity and health, they have additional utility for quantifying benthic community structure, such as coral growth and fine
Authors
Gerry Hatcher, Jonathan Warrick, Andrew C. Ritchie, Evan Dailey, David G. Zawada, Christine J. Kranenburg, Kimberly K. Yates
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Recovery Activities

Marfac Machine Vision Camera Interface

This project contains the C# software developed to control and acquire imagery from a FLIR GigE machine vision camera. It is built using the FLIR Spinnaker 64bit SDK version 2.4.0.144 and requires the spinview application and associated dll's. This software was developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 to control and acquire imagery from a GigE machine vision camera (Model: BFS-PGE-50S5C-C, t
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Sampling Methane Seeps and Plumes on the U.S. Atlantic Margin

USGS scientists and partners completed a research cruise on the research vessel (R/V) Hugh R. Sharp to acquire sediment and water samples, heat-flow...

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Deep-Sea Instrument Tripod Passes Test in Monterey Bay, California—Next Stop is South China Sea

A deepwater tripod system designed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will be the first of its kind to be deployed on the bottom of the South China...

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The New BOBSled Underwater Camera System Records High-Definition Video of the Seafloor

The Benthic OBservation Sled, or BOBSled, was developed at the Marine Facility of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz...

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