Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
20090930
CRED Fish Biomass Estimates at Tutuila Island, 2002
Format: Video imagery, track line navigation files, and log sheets
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/pibhmc_amsamoa_tutuila_optical.htm
Fish biomass data were collected using a Towed Optical Assessment Device (TOAD), an underwater sled
equipped with an underwater digital video camera and lights. Data were collected at American Samoa,
Tutuila Island to support Benthic Habitat Mapping efforts.
These data will provide optical observations that will be correlated with bathymetry and acoustic backscatter imagery
to create a fish biomass map of Tutuila Island. Refer to supplemental information for description of
instrument and survey.
Tutuila is the largest of seven islands in American Samoa at 142.3 sq. km. Volcanic in
origin, it reaches a height of 653m at Matafao Peak. Tutuila is centered at 14.30 degrees N, 169.75 degrees W,
has 101.3 km of coastline and an estimated 36.2 sq. km of reef area. The port of Pago Pago is a collapsed crater
and is one of the largest natural ports in the Pacific. Pago Pago contains a tuna cannery which is a hub of a large
purse-seining tuna fishing fleet. The cannery outputs large amounts of nutrients as byproduct into the waters of
Pago Pago harbor. The human population of Tutuila in 1990 was 45,043. It is considered a high island and contributes
significant nutrient and sediment runoff to coastal waters. Tutuila's waters are protected by the 0.7 sq. km
Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, as well as by the National Park of American Samoa, which covers the
north-central part of the island and approximately 5 sq. km of coastline.
Mobile fauna data were collected using the Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD), a sled equipped with
underwater video camera, still camera, and lights. These data are used to provide fish count and biomass maps where
benthic habitat classification has been completed. Camera sled deployments were conducted at night,
usually between 1800 and midnight. The TOAD was deployed from a pot hauler mounted on the starboard side of the
fantail on NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell. It was lowered slowly to the bottom by the deck crew with the use of a capstan.
The TOAD operator monitored a live video feed from the camera and began recording data on two video tape recorders.
When the camera reached bottom the deck crew was notified by radio to stop lowering. The TOAD was a MiniBat 8820
unit manufactured by Guideline, and was towed by the ship at 1-2 knots while remotely guided from the ship using
adjustable wing controls to keep the unit close to the underwater substrate. The TOAD was damaged during the cruise
on 02/20/02, and subsequent tows were conducted as drift deployments. At each station the ship was positioned with
the wind on the starboard side and drifted downwind; occasional light turns were applied to the ship's screws if
necessary to reduce the ship's motion. The operator continued to monitor the vehicle and provided commands to raise
or lower it to keep the camera just above the bottom.
Equipment Description: The TOAD is a camera sled based on the Guildline MiniBat model 8820 tow body. The frame was
configured with a single Sony DCR-PC110 Digital Video Camera in a modified Gates underwater housing, a Canon Power
Shot G1 Still Camera (modified by CRED engineers) in an Ikelite housing rated to 60 m slaved to an Ikelite DS-50
strobe, and two 500 W DeepSea Power & Light model 710-0400601 underwater lights. The Canon camera had a custom-built
timer that enabled the user to select a constant time interval (ranging from approximately 5 seconds to 2 minutes)
between photographs. An interval of 30 seconds was typically selected, which, assuming a mean velocity for the camera
sled of 1.5 knots, resulted in one photograph approximately every 20 m. Photograph resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels
and file names are assigned sequentially and automatically by the camera, starting at 100-0000 after the camera's
memory is cleared. The MiniBAT pressure sensor and wing controller were also mounted on the frame but the pressure
sensor was not operational, after damage to the TOAD on 02/20/02. And the sled's wings were not installed thereafter.
The cable between the sled and the surface was an underwater load-bearing electrical cable. The TOAD computers were
located in the Electronics Lab of the Townsend Cromwell. The electronics box containing the power switches was
secured to the ship's fantail, and all other TOAD surface components were secured in the ship's wet lab.
Name & address of person collecting data:
Joyce Miller & Ron Hoeke
NOAA PIFSC
1125B Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu, HI 98614
Data Files: Video data were recorded on two video tape recorders. The position of the camera sled was recorded using Guildline MiniBat
In-Tow data acquisition software.
File naming convention: Each tow is given a name consisting of a 3-letter designator for the island area followed
by a two-digit year and three-digit tow number, which increments by one for each new tow around that island. During TC0201 (NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell's
first cruise in calendar year 2002) the consecutive numbers started at TUT02001. For following cruises, the tow numbers
will increment by 100, so the first tow on the next cruise will be tow number 100. Video tape labels, the navigation
(.glo and .shp) files, and paper log forms are annotated with the tow name and number, e.g., TUT02001. If the navigation
file is edited during processing the file name has a suffix `a' added. For example, one of the navigation data files
is named `TUT02001a.glo'. Metadata were extracted from the navigation data and recorded to a file with the same name
as the navigation file except that a file type of `.met' was appended; for example, `TUT02001a.glo.met'.
Time Correlation: All times are based on UTC. Two clocks were set manually synchronized prior to starting data
collection; the clock in the video character generator that was used to annotate the video tape and the TOAD data
acquisition computer clock was used to annotate the navigation (*.glo) files. These clocks were set to UTC at the
beginning of each evening's operations and then compared to one another prior to (and during) each tow. There were
problems maintaining synchronization of the TOAD computer clock during this cruise. See the problems section for a description.
Resource Description: Digital video images geo-referenced to navigation files
20020210
20020304
ground condition
As needed
-170.92
-170.49
-14.20
-14.38
CoRIS Theme Thesaurus
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Benthic Habitat
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment > Photographic analysis > Videography
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment > Mapping
None
Tethered Optical Assessment Device (TOAD)
Underwater video
TC0201
CoRIS Discovery Thesaurus
Geographic Information > Fish Stock Characteristics
ISO 19115 Topic Category
environment
007
biota
002
CoRIS Place Thesaurus
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > American Samoa > Tutuila Island (14S170W0016)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > American Samoa > American Samoa > Tutuila Island (14S170W0016)
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Tutuila Island > Pago Pago (14S170W0008)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > American Samoa > Tutuila Island > Pago Pago (14S170W0008)
OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > American Samoa > American Samoa (14S170W0000)
COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > American Samoa > American Samoa > American Samoa (14S170W0000)
None
Tutuila
American Samoa
CoRIS Region
AmSam
None
Please acknowledge the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center as
the source of this information.
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
John Rooney
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/amsamoa_images/tut_toad_mf_445.jpg
Tutuila, American Samoa: TOAD Tows and Multibeam Bathymetry
JPEG
Benthic Habitat Mapping Group, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science
Center (PIFSC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Not applicable
Unclassified
Not applicable
Unspecified
Complete
The horizontal position accuracy for the camera sled position is 100 meters.
There are three primary sources of this error. The ship's positioning is based on GPS SPS, often called standalone
or non-differential GPS positioning. SPS has a measured accuracy of under 5 meters. The position of the GPS antenna is used; no attempt is made to
translocate this position to that of the tow block from which the camera is deployed. The difference between the
tow block and the antenna is about 14 meters. The camera sled position is based on a layback calculation that use
ship's course, the amount of cable out and the camera sled depth to develop an estimate of the camera sled
position. The amount of cable deployed is manually entered by the operator during a given camera tow.
After a tow was completed the video tape data was reviewed by spot checking the master and
backup tape to verify that data were recorded. Navigation data were copied from the acquisition computer to the
data archive. A metadata extractor (gloFilter.py, version 3/06) was run to summarize the navigation data and test
for errors. If errors were detected they were corrected or flagged as appropriate and a new data file was made.
This file's header was updated to document what type of processing occurred. A metadata file was recorded in the
data archive in the same location as the navigation data. Processed navigation data were then read into ArcView 3.2
shapefiles using an ArcView Avenue script named TOAD.Import.Playback, version 9/25/01, written by Ronald Hoeke.
TOAD video were classified for benthic habitat type to create Optical Validation maps to interpret acoustically
derived data layers. These classified points were imported into a Microsoft Access 2003 database. All fish present
during 15 second intervals before and after these positions were recorded and identified. Using LW coefficients
derived from fishbase.org and size estimates from video, total biomass was calculated for a given point. An area
of 0.0012 hectares per point observation was assumed based on average distances traveled between points as well as
average width of field of view. A table with position, island, biomass(tonnes/hectare), and number of fish was
exported from MS Access into ArcGis v9.3. This file was exported as a shapefile. A column with biomass data was
symbolized using layer file MF_Biomass.lyr to create Fish Biomass Estimates map.
200908
0.0001
0.0001
Decimal Degrees
D_WGS_1984
WGS_1984
6378137.000000
298.257224
No correction
0.1
meters
Attribute Values
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
John Rooney
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
Downloadable Data
These data are not to be used for navigational purposes. NOAA makes no warranty regarding these
data, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA cannot assume liability
for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data, nor as a result of the failure of these data to
function on a particular system.
ASCII
Each comma-delimited record contains year, day of year, time, latitude longitude,
velocity north and east, water column depth, vehicle depth, layback, and wing angle. For this dataset the fields
for vehicle depth and wing angle do not contain useful data.
List of navigation files:
tut02001a.glo
tut02002a.glo
tut02003a.glo
tut02004a.glo
tut02005a.glo
tut02006a.glo
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/pibhmc_amsamoa_tutuila_optical.htm
CD-ROM
ISO 9660
mini digital video and VHS
These data were recorded on 2 video tapes, include 50 min of video data
covering 2.5 linear km of seabed. The second tape also includes data from
Palmyra Atoll.
List of video tapes:
TUT02001-003, VHS, Master
PAL02002-TUT02004-006, VHS, Master
TUT02001-003a, Mini DV, Master
TUT02003b, Mini Dv, Master
PAL02002-TUT02004a, Mini DV, Master
TUT02004b-006, Mini DV, Master
TUT02001-003a, Mini DV, Backup
TUT02003b, Mini Dv, Backup
PAL02002-TUT02004a, Mini DV, Backup
TUT02004b-006, Mini DV, Backup
Video cassette tape
Mini DV
None
20121220
20091202
Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
mailing and physical address
1125B Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu
HI
96814
(808) 983-3776
(808) 983-2902
pibhmc@soest.hawaii.edu
e-mail preferred
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
20091202011420
None
20020210
20020304
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/metadata/records/html/cred_toad_tutuila_tc0201_2002_mobilefauna.html
4355