Oregon OCS Seafloor Mapping: Selected Lease Blocks Relevant to Renewable Energy

This data release about Oregon Offshore Wind Pilot Project includes multibeam echosounder bathmetry and backscatter intensity data, and observations of seafloor substrate from a towed bottom video camera. The Offshore Wind Pilot Project was proposed by Principle Power, Inc, in May 2013. The proposed lease request is approximately 15 nautical miles offshore Coos Bay, Oregon with an area of approximately 15 square miles. The project would consist of five 6.0 megawatt (MW) wind turbine generators mounted on floating foundations, anchored to the seafloor in 1,200 to 1,600 feet water depth. This USGS study is funded by BOEM to acquire data and generate a CMECS habitat map in the area surrounding the Pilot Project site. Operations were conducted using the USGS R/V Parke Snavely equipped with a Reson 7111 multibeam sonar mounted on starboard side pole and a towed high definition video sled. Sonar data were acquired using Reson PDS 2000 software. Horizontal positions for navigation and data collection were determined by using a POS M/V V5 operating in Differential GPS (DGPS) mode. The horizontal datum was Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 10 North and the vertical datum was MLLW. The survey was conducted using 12 hour day operations out of Charleston Harbor near Coos Bay, Oregon. The cruise plan consisted of 23 days on site split between sonar mapping and video ground truth surveying. Activities parsed out to nine days of sonar mapping, three days of video surveying, eight days of no operations due to weather, and three days mobilizing and demobilizing. Typically the Snavely would transit out to the survey area in an hour at a speed of 20 knots. Multibeam sonar operations were conducted on north or south oriented tracklines at a speed of 4 to 5 knots depending on sea state. The optimal heading for sonar operations is isobath parallel. Video operations were conducted by deploying up drift of a target and drifting over it at speeds of 1 knot or less.