EM302 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During EX1805

Singlebeam Collection for EX1805: East Florida Mapping
(Telepresence) (EK60). From May 22 - June 6, 2018, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer
conducted mapping operations 24 hours per day using the ship's state-of-the-art
suite of sonars focused on mapping the seafloor, the water column, and the
sub-seafloor. This was the first part of the two-part Windows to the Deep 2018:
Exploration of the Southeast U.S. Continental Margin expedition intended to
increase our understanding of the deep-sea environment along the southeast
United States. This is the first NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer expedition that will
contribute to NOAA’s Atlantic Seafloor Partnership for Integrated Research and
Exploration (ASPIRE), a major multi-year, multi-national collaborative field
program focused on raising collective knowledge and understanding of the North
Atlantic Ocean. Mapping operations were focused offshore Florida, Georgia, and
South Carolina, in the South Atlantic Bight – and more specifically, the Blake
Plateau – over some of the least explored areas along the U.S. East Coast. The
data collected during the expedition provides baseline information in unknown
and poorly known deepwater areas of the southeastern United States and will
directly support remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive planning efforts for the
second part of this expedition, as well as the ongoing National Oceanographic
Partnership Program’s Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on
Coral/Canyon/Cold seep Habitats (DEEP SEARCH) project.