Benthic cover from automated annotation of benthic images collected at coral reef sites in the Pacific Remote Island Areas and American Samoa from 2018-06-08 to 2018-08-11 (NCEI Accession 0204646)

The coral reef benthic community data described here result from the automated annotation (classification) of benthic images collected during photoquadrat surveys conducted by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD, formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) as part of NOAA's ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). SCUBA divers conducted benthic photoquadrat surveys in coral reef habitats according to protocols established by ESD and NCRMP during the ESD-led NCRMP mission to the islands and atolls of the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA) and American Samoa from June 8 to August 11, 2018.

Still photographs were collected with a high-resolution digital camera mounted on a pole to document the benthic community composition at predetermined points along transects at stratified random sites surveyed only once as part of Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys for corals and fish (Ayotte et al. 2015; Swanson et al. 2018) and permanent sites established by ESD and resurveyed every ~3 years for climate change monitoring.