Survey of benthic communities near potential renewable energy sites offshore the Pacific Northwest, macrofauna abundances and box core station physical data conducted from 2010-08-23 to 2012-10-05 in the frame of BOEM-BHC project (NCEI Accession 0122659)

This study was designed to provide baseline knowledge of seafloor geology and invertebrate distributions at a regional scale by undertaking new mapping, synthesizing existing mapping data, conducting biological assessments, and developing new predictive models. This data set (macrofaunal abundances) provides a baseline distribution of these species that are likely to be most directly affected by offshore renewable energy installations.

Six sites were visited across northern California (2 sites), Oregon (3 sites) and Washington (1 site) during summer 2010 and collected 118 macrofaunal samples using a 0.1 m2 box-corer. Two additional sites were sampled (34 additional grabs) during the summer of 2012 to fill in latitudinal and habitat gaps. Sediment samples were sieved using 1 mm mesh and all macrofaunal organisms were identified and counted after a sub-sample was removed for particle size analysis. CTD casts were conducted to obtain physical data from the water column overlying the sites for further habitat characterization at each box core sampling station. This data set contains physical data (water properties and sediment characteristics) at 152 sampling stations across the 8 sites sampled in 2010 and 2012.