This data set reports information regarding the nominal sampling locations for the National Status and Trends Benthic Surveillance Project sites. One record is presented per site. Each record reports the five letter site acronym, site sequence number, general and specific location information, state abbreviation, state name, degree-minute-second coordinates, decimal degree coordinates, and species information, among other things. The actual site coordinate information is recorded at the time of sampling, if samples were taken at a location other than the nominal site center. The five letter acronym is based on both the general location information and more specific location information (e.g. SFSM is San Francisco-San Mateo Bridge). The file also contains sequence numbers that facilitate geographic manipulation of the data. Sites are numbered sequentially from the northern most site on the U.S. East coast (i.e. Penobscot Bay-Pickering Island) and continue counter-clockwise around the country.