These data represent the Critical Habitat for Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) in the State of Florida as designated by 73 FR 72210, November 26th, 2008, Rules and Regulations. Updated bathymetry East of St. John was added to the critical habitat layer on May 7th, 2015. Please Note: This dataset only contains data present at the Florida extent.

Use_Constraints:

Users be advised that the accuracy of this data set is completely dependent upon
the accuracy of the shoreline and bathymetric data used in the creation process.
For more details on this process, see the process description. The text description in
73 FR 72210 is always the one, true definition of Acropora critical habitat. These or
any other depictions are for information purposes only and shouldn't be relied on for
regulatory purposes.

*** Attribution *** Whenever NMFS material is reproduced and re-disseminated, we
request that users attribute the material appropriately. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 403,
parties who produce copyrighted works consisting predominantly of material created
by the Federal Government are encouraged to provide notice with such work(s)
identifying the U.S. Government material incorporated and stating that such material
is not subject to copyright protection. Please cite Regulated Area datasets as
follows, with the appropriate information substituted for all text in {CURLY
BRACKETS}: NOAA Fisheries Service. NMFS Regulated Areas in Northeast, Mid-
Atlantic and Southeast Waters. {SHAPEFILE TITLE} [Shapefile]. Gloucester, MA or
St. Petersburg, FL: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries
Office (GARFO) or Southeast Regional Office (SERO) [producer] {SHAPEFILE
PUBLICATION DATE}. http://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/gis or
http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/maps_gis_data/. *** No Warranty*** The user assumes
the entire risk related to its use of these data. NMFS is providing these data ""as
is,"" and NMFS disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied,
including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose. No warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the
accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific
purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. It is strongly
recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file
associated with these data to evaluate dataset limitations, restrictions or intended
use. In no event will NMFS be liable to you or to any third party for any direct,
indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit
resulting from any use or misuse of this data. *** Proper Usage *** The information
on government servers are in the public domain, unless specifically annotated
otherwise, and may be used freely by the public. Before using information obtained
from this server, special attention should be given to the date and time of the data
and products being displayed. This information shall not be modified in content and
then presented as official government material. This dataset was created to depict
the boundaries of NMFS Regulated Areas in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast
Waters (Regulated Areas) only. The dataset should not be used for a legal
definition. The dataset should not be used to infer information regarding the
existence or details of other marine features or resources, including, but not limited
to, navigable waters, coastlines, bathymetry, submerged features, or man-made
structures. Users assume responsibility for determining the appropriate use of this
dataset. *** Not the Legal Definition *** This Geographic Information System (GIS)
dataset is not the legal definition of the Regulated Area. The description published
in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations is the only legal definition. This dataset and
metadata document provide a broad overview of a subset of applicable fishing
regulations, restrictions and requirements, critical habitat or essential fish habitat; it is
not a substitute for the actual regulations. Users are encouraged to read the
applicable regulations in conjunction with use of this dataset. *** Temporal
Considerations *** Regulated Area boundary definitions are subject to change or
modification. Published datasets may represent historic, current, or future Regulated
Areas. When changes to fishing regulations affect this dataset, it will be archived
and replaced by an updated version as soon as feasible. Approved Regulated Area
boundaries may also be published prior to their effective date. It is the user s
responsibility to ensure the applicable Regulated Area boundaries are being used.
*** Shorelines/Base Layers *** The accuracy of this dataset is dependent upon the
accuracy and resolution of the datasets (e.g., shoreline, bathymetry, National
Hydrographic Database, shared administrative boundaries) used in the creation
process. Source datasets used are specified in the metadata. These data sources
were selected for their suitability to a broad audience, and may not be suitable for
specific uses requiring higher-resolution information. Coastlines change. Unless
otherwise noted, where the NOAA Medium Resolution Shoreline is used, assume
the regulatory boundary reaches the most current coastline delineation available.

Bathymetry source: NGDC Coastal Relief Model for Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands (Vol. 9), and Florida and Eastern Gulf of Mexico (Vol. 3). Using ESRI's ArcGIS ArcMap software and Spatial Analyst extension, ran the 'Surface Analysis' tool, 'Contour'. Set contour interval to 30 (CRM is in tenths of meters). The contour line was a bit blocky, so smoothed using ET GeoWizard (3rd party software) to smooth the contour using Bezier Curve smoothing algorithm with default settings (5 for smoothness) for the Caribbean and 10 for smoothing setting for Florida, and then cleaned. Converted the polyline to a polygon. Deleted very small polygons/ or polys for depths +/- 1m.

The process of creating an outer boundary using the gridded bathymetry data produced polygons with very dense vertices. ET GeoWizards (3rd party software) was used to generalize the polygons, using the Douglas-Poiker algorithm. A generalize tolerance of .00001 arc seconds was assigned.

Used detailed shoreline for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands from NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), by selecting 'Land' and 'mangrove' polygons. Used NOAA medium resolution vector shoreline for Florida to create land polygon. Erased the bathymetry polygons with the land/mangrove polygons . For Florida shoreline, or shoreward side of the critical habitat polygon, used Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) for nearshore bathymetry (digitized from NOAA nautical charts) for the 6 ft depth to Government Cut, FWC 1:24,000 scale shoreline, COLREG lines, and intercouncil boundary between South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils at the mouths of bays and inlets, and information from the U.S. Navy for exclusions. The polygon that included to the 30 meter contour was erased with the appropriate data for the shoreward side.

The GeoPlan Center downloaded the critical habitat dataset on October 17th, 2019 from NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Critical Habitat Website: ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION: Critical Habitat https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/critical-habitat Southeast critical habitat maps and data https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/tags/southeast-critical-habitat-map Acropora: Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral Critical Habitat Map and GIS Data Map and GIS data representing critical habitat for the conservation of threatened Acropora species in the Southeast U.S. June 26, 2019 - Map , Southeast https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/map/acropora-elkhorn-and-staghorn-coral-critical-habitat-map-and-gis-data https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/webdam/download/94271617 shapefile_Acropora_critical_habitat_Florida_Caribbean_SERO.zip shapefile_Acropora_critical_habitat_Florida_Caribbean_SERO.shp During the QA/QC process the following tasks were undertaken: - Select features that intersected the CH_NMFS_EXTENT_OCT19.shp - Reprojected to FGDL Albers via the following: Original Projection: GCS_North_American_1983 Transformation used to Reproject to FGDL Albers: NAD_1983_To_HARN_Florida - Clipped to the CH_NMFS_EXTENT_OCT19.shp - Uppercased all records in the table (Except Scientific Names). - Uppercased all field names - A DESCRIPT field was added based on COMNAME - A FGDLAQDATE field was added based on date downloaded from source. - Renamed to: CH_NMFS_ACROPORA_MAY15 - Updated Metadata.

The Florida Geographic Data Library is a collection of Geospatial Data compiled by the University of Florida GeoPlan Center with support from the Florida Department of Transportation. GIS data available in FGDL is collected from various state, federal, and other agencies (data sources) who are data stewards, producers, or publishers. The data available in FGDL may not be the most current version of the data offered by the data source. University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no guarantees about the currentness of the data and suggests that data users check with the data source to see if more recent versions of the data exist. Furthermore, the GIS data available in the FGDL are provided 'as is'. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no warranties, guaranties or representations as to the truth, accuracy or completeness of the data provided by the data sources. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no representations or warranties about the quality or suitability of the materials, either expressly or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center shall not be liable for any damages suffered as a result of using, modifying, contributing or distributing the materials. A note about data scale: Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data. 1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger. Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html

CRITICAL HABITAT IN FLORIDA FOR THE ELKHORN AND STAGHORN CORALS (ACROPORA) - 2015

Metadata: