Bathymetry and topography, video observation, and derived benthic habitat data offshore of Seattle, Washington

In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, initiated the Puget Sound Scientific Studies and Technical Investigations Assistance Program, which was designed to support research for implementing the Puget Sound Action Agenda. The Action Agenda was created because Puget Sound was designated as one of 28 estuaries of National Significance under section 320 of the Clean Water Act, and its overall goal is to restore the environment of the Puget Sound Estuary by 2020. The Southern Salish Sea Mapping Project was funded through the Assistance Program request for proposal process which also supports a large number of coastal-zone- and ocean-management issues, and includes the recommendations of the Marine Protected Areas Work Group to the Washington State Legislature. These recommendations include a Puget Sound and coast-wide marine conservation needs assessment, gap analysis of existing Marine Protected Areas and recommendations for action.

Four areas with recently acquired National Ocean Service hydrographic data are included in the Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series, each to be published individually as USGS Open File Reports at a scale of 1:40,000. The map products display seafloor geoforms, substrate, and biotopes using the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). In this data release we are adding the data used to create maps for the Offshore of Seattle study area. Data for the Admiralty Inlet map area that were released in USGS Data Series 935 were not changed and are still available as originally published at https://doi.org/10.3133/ds935.