What does the Oculina Bank look like?
Through the use of multibeam mapping, which produces a 3D bathymetric map of the seafloor, and ROVs and submersibles, which are used to visually view the bottom, we have been able to get an idea of what the Oculina Bank looks like.
The Oculina Bank extends over 90nmi along the shelf edge from Fort Pierce to Daytona, Florida, from 32 to 68 km offshore at depths of 60-100m. Over the past thousand or more years, the ivory tree coral, Oculina varicosa, has built up coral mounds or bioherms, on a foundation of carbonate bedrock. The 60 mile stretch of limestone pinnacles, mounds, and ridges (5-35m above bottom and 100-300m in width) from Fort Pierce to Cape Canaveral is the area covered by the Oculina Habitat Area of Particular Concern (OHAPC). These features are overlain to varying degrees with a veneer of living or dead coral, coral rubble, sand, or mud. When we analyze videotapes from ROV dives and assign a habitat to fish species or when we analyze digital still photos for percent habitat cover, there are six habitat types we encounter on the Oculina Banks. These include:
- sand;
- standing dead coral (Oculina coral that still has structure, but is no longer living);
- live Oculina;
- coral rubble (small, broken fragments of dead coral);
- ledge and rock outcrops (hardbottom with some vertical relief); and
- pavement (hardbottom with no vertical relief).
On this cruise, we are trying to map the deeper portion of the Banks which will complete mapping of the Oculina Experimental Closed Area (OECA).