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



Learn more about MarFac.
PCMSC MarFac Field Equipment and Capabilities
PCMSC MarFac Team
PCMSC MarFac Vessels
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
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
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
SQUID-5 structure-from-motion point clouds, bathymetric maps, orthomosaics, and underwater photos of coral reefs in Florida, 2019
Below are publications associated with this project.
Accurate bathymetric maps from underwater digital imagery without ground control
Marfac Machine Vision Camera Interface
- Overview
Learn about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center Marine Facility, or MarFac
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
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. 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. 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. 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 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 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 - Science
Learn more about MarFac.
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.PCMSC MarFac Team
Below is the list of our fieldwork specialists at PCMSC's Marine Facility, or MarFac.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. - Data
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 FloPoint 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 cameMultichannel 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 alongSQUID-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 - Multimedia
- Publications
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 fineAuthorsGerry Hatcher, Jonathan Warrick, Andrew C. Ritchie, Evan Dailey, David G. Zawada, Christine J. Kranenburg, Kimberly K. Yates - Software
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 - News