Images

Dale Griffin of the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center is interviewed about the links between Saharan dust and harmful algal blooms off the coast of Florida. 

A scientist deploys a sound velocity cast from a boat while conducting a chirp geophysical survey offshore of the Rockaway Peninsula, New York. These geophysical data were used to quantify volumes of available shoreface sediment on this margin.

Scientists collected marine vibracores from a research vessel in Mississippi Sound to study shelf geology as part of a collaboration between Mississippi State University and the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

Photo of Fire Island, New York showing back barrier, dunes, beach, and nearshore environments.

Explore coastal change at Fire Island in this interactive Story Map.

Fire Island is a barrier island off the coast of Long Island, New York that hosts several protected areas, nesting habitat for shorebirds, and beachgoers looking for a relaxing place for recreation. USGS studies how the island changes over time - in both the past and present - to better understand how the island may evolve in the future. 

A great white heron standing atop the mangrove roots of Boggy Key, in the upper Florida Keys. This heron has a limited range, which includes the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park. It is rarely seen outside of these areas. 

Predicted probabilities of dune erosion (inner band), overwash (middle band), and inundation (outer band) for Hurricane Dorian. Photographs are representative of coastal change observed during past storm events.

USGS scientists use specialized equipment to measure sediment dynamics in nearshore and coastal systems. Access by boat is limited in these areas, so personal watercraft are equipped with GPS and echosounders to collect bathymetric data. Seismic sleds are pulled along transects from the beach across the water to measure changes in sediment type below the water.

USGS scientist Chelsea Stalk stands on a floating sled that enables sub‐bottom surveying in shallow water, nearshore, and shore‐face environments. The sled is equipped with an EdgeTech SB‐512i CHIRP system and single‐beam sonar. This equipment is used to collect seismic sub‐bottom profiles and single‐beam bathymetry.

Scientists from the St.

A colorful sunrise appears over the horizon of a calm ocean offshore of Melbourne, Florida. USGS Scientist RC Mickey collects data for location and elevation of sea turtle crawls and associated beach profiles this stretch of coastline.

The SQUID-5, or a Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with 5 cameras is a towed surface vehicle with an onboard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and 5 downward-looking cameras with overlapping views of the seafloor.

Two red sea urchins (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) sit on the deck of the R/V Falkor. These sea urchins were collected during the #HuntingBubbles research cruise led by the USGS and Schmidt Ocean Institute, which focused on exploring and understanding methane seeps and the communities that depend on them along the Cascadia Margin.

USGS Research Marine Biologist Dr. Ilsa Kuffner holds a brain coral on board a research vessel while research on coral growth in Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, VI.

USGS researchers have been monitoring changes in a breach in the island that occurred during Hurricane Sandy (modified from  Hapke et al., 2017). 
 

The CMHRP has been conducting scientific investigations at Fire Island in order to protect natural and cultural resources.

USGS studies the growth rates of corals at a network of coral growth assessment stations throughout Buck Island National Monument in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. These data provide resource managers with information needed to understand how coral populations are doing in the park.

View of Capitola, California. Capitola is a city in Santa Cruz County, California on the coast of Monterey Bay.

On May 6, 2019, Congressman Charlie Crist (13^th district, FL) and Operations and Outreach Director Mr. Kendrick Lewis will visit the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC). Congressman Crist requested this visit because he is interested to learn more about the Center and to discuss needs/priorities that we may have.

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting research to guide the recovery of the threatened Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, in Dry Tortugas National Park and throughout the western Atlantic.

Jessica Rodysill (Reston) and Hunter Wilcox (SPCMSC) deploying a corer in Lake Enriquillo. The scientists will use the cores to construct precipitation changes in Dominican Republic over the late Holocene (~5000 years ago to present) time period.