We are pleased to announce the availability of new seafloor mapping data to support energy infrastructure planning in the Long Island Sound!
This survey is the result of a Coast Survey partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP) through NOAA’s Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund opportunity, a program that allows non-federal organizations to co-fund projects of mutual interest utilizing NOAA’s contracting and data management expertise. NOAA selected this project in the FY2024 round of the matching fund opportunity.
The Long Island Sound Seafloor Habitat Mapping Initiative, which is managed by CTDEEP and administered by the Long Island Sound Cable Fund Steering Committee, consisting of Federal, state, and academic partners from Connecticut and New York, who will use this data to support domestic energy development and production and the routing of electric transmission cables through Long Island Sound. And in accordance with our Map Once, Use Many Times goal, NOAA will use the data to support maritime commerce and other interests by improving nautical charts and other mapping products.
“Updated full coverage, bathymetry and backscatter data collected using advanced
high-resolution multibeam sonar systems [will also] support future seafloor habitat studies,
decision-making, and policy development,” noted CTDEEP. “The data [will] also be integral for supporting future mapping of the surficial geology and ecology of the seafloor.”
NOAA contractors collected approximately 170 square nautical miles and over 4,500 linear nautical miles of multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data.
The data are available on NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information Bathymetric Data Viewer. The specific surveys from this effort are: H13926 – H13931.
Additional multibeam point cloud imagery from the survey (Credit: Ocean Surveys, Inc.)
About the Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund and NOAA’s Hydrographic Survey Services
NOAA’s ocean and coastal mapping programs invite non-Federal entities to partner on jointly-funded mapping projects of mutual interest under the NOAA Rear Admiral Richard T. Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund program. NOAA matches selected non-Federal partners at a 70:30 NOAA to partner ratio for contract mapping projects totaling up to $1,000,000 in ocean, coastal and/or Great Lakes waters.
Selected non-Federal partners benefit from this opportunity by leveraging NOAA’s contracting (NOAA has a pool of pre-qualified technical experts in surveying and mapping) and data management expertise. NOAA’s Hydrographic Surveying Services enables other federal agencies, states, and partners to fund and execute projects in both of our interests. We leverage our expertise in specifying, contracting, and qualifying hydrographic data, and each task-order is negotiated before award to optimize technical approach and minimize cost.
To safeguard our national security and economic prosperity, ocean mapping is the foundation for maritime commerce, domestic energy and seafood production, tourism and recreation, among other interests. The 2020 National Strategy for Ocean Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the United States Exclusive Economic Zone makes comprehensive ocean mapping a priority for the coming decade.
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