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    • This is a Non-Federal dataset covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov.

    SF Bay Eelgrass (BCDC 2020)

    Metadata Updated: July 24, 2025

    This eelgrass layer includes the maximum extent of eelgrass beds that have been surveyed in the San Francisco Bay shown in green. It was created by merging the Bay-wide eelgrass surveys conducted by Merkel & Associates, Inc. (Merkel) in 2003, 2009, 2014, and a Richardson Bay survey conducted by Merkel in 2019. Merkel has granted permission for public use of these data. These eelgrass surveys represent the best available data on comprehensive eelgrass extent throughout San Francisco Bay in 2021 and are developed using a combination of acoustic and aerial surveys and site-specific ground truthing. This layer may be used as a reference to determine potential direct and indirect impacts to eelgrass habitat from dredging projects. These data do not replace the need for site-specific eelgrass surveys.Data from the 2003, 2009, and 2014 eelgrass surveys and associated Merkel reports which include information on mapping methodology are available for download on the San Francisco Estuary Institute’s (SFEI) website. Methods for creating this layer are as follows:Downloaded the Merkel Baywide Eelgrass Surveys for 2003, 2009, and 2014 from SFEI and combined into a single layer. Obtained original Richardson Bay 2019 eelgrass survey data from Merkel. Loaded all layers into ArcGIS Pro © ESRI and re-projected all data to the NAD 1983 UTM Zone 10N coordinate system. Ran union of both the SFEI and Richardson Bay 2019 layers. Merged features to create one single attribute table for eelgrass cover from all survey years. Removed extraneous columns in the attribute table, recalculated area fields based on new extent, and applied symbology.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. Non-Federal: This dataset is covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date August 25, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date July 24, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from State of California

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date August 25, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date July 24, 2025
    Publisher San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
    Maintainer
    Identifier 8bf06c71-357d-46ec-9e04-7162252b05a9
    Data First Published 2021-01-20T21:15:05.000Z
    Data Last Modified 2021-08-10T19:07:54.008Z
    Category Natural Resources
    Public Access Level public
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 1609953a-99a3-4b93-9213-0be107859443
    Harvest Source Id 3ba8a0c1-5dc2-4897-940f-81922d3cf8bc
    Harvest Source Title State of California
    License http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash a47bf924aa7e86d0391d0b11f4c2948c88a43423def7ec99c8cc68d9ed677aa7
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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