Archive of chirp subbottom data collected during USGS cruise ORGN00005, northeastern Gulf of Mexico, 15 February-2 March 2000

In 1999, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council recommended that NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service establish two approximately 11-square-mile areas on the shelf edge in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico as no-fishing areas. One of the areas, the Madison-Swanson Marine Protected Area (MPA) lies about 100 km south of Panama City, Florida. The second area, Steamboat Lumps MPA lies about 150 km SSE of Madison-Swanson. The high-resolution seismic-reflection data contained herein were collected as part of a larger study of the effectiveness of no-fishing reserves in protecting grouper spawning aggregations. These subbottom profiles will be used in conjunction with other data to map the seafloor geology and the character and extent of benthic habitats within and surrounding the two MPAs. They show the shape and acoustic impedence of the seafloor and the thicknesses and orientations of shallow subsurface horizons. These data may be helpful in the following applications:

1. choosing biological monitoring sites
2. management decisions in the MPAs
3. choosing sites for future MPAs
4. studies of paleo-sealevel
5. studies of the inter-relationships between seafloor geology and benthic ecology
6. studies of sedimentary geology and geologic framework of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico