Data Management Plan

This feature class depicts proposed critical habitat of the green sea turtle, as clarified by the regulatory language. Please consider the regulatory language when using these spatial data. For example, some boundaries may occur on land, which is not included in this designation.This proposed critical habitat designation is based on the best available data and includes only in-water areas containing the essential features. Please see the attribute data, which describe the essential features are contained in each unit of critical habitat. The essential features are defined as follows:(1) Reproductive (North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Central North Pacific, Central South Pacific, and Central West Pacific DPSs). From the mean high water line to 20 m depth, sufficiently dark and unobstructed nearshore waters adjacent to nesting beaches designated as critical habitat by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), to allow for the transit, mating, and internesting of reproductive individuals and the transit of post-hatchlings.(2) Migratory (North Atlantic and East Pacific DPSs). From the mean high water line to 20 m depth (North Atlantic DPS) or 10 km offshore (East Pacific DPS), sufficiently unobstructed waters that allow for unrestricted transit of reproductive individuals between benthic foraging/resting and reproductive areas.(3) Benthic foraging/resting (North Atlantic, South Atlantic, East Pacific, Central North Pacific, Central South Pacific, and Central West Pacific DPSs). From the mean high water line to 20 m depth, underwater refugia and food resources (i.e., seagrasses, macroalgae, and/or invertebrates) of sufficient condition, distribution, diversity, abundance, and density necessary to support survival, development, growth, and/or reproduction.(4) Surface-pelagic foraging/resting (North Atlantic DPS). Convergence zones, frontal zones, surface-water downwelling areas, the margins of major boundary currents, and other areas that result in concentrated components of the Sargassum-dominated drift community, as well as the currents which carry turtles to Sargassum-dominated drift communities, which provide sufficient food resources and refugia to support the survival, growth, and development of post-hatchlings and surface-pelagic juveniles, and which are located in sufficient water depth (at least 10 m) to ensure offshore transport via ocean currents to areas which meet forage and refugia requirements.Disclaimer: the spatial data provided here display an approximation of the boundaries for the essential features described above. For example, in some areas critical habitat occurs from the mean high water line to 20 m depth, and the spatial data approximate this area. Use of these data do not replace the ESA section 7 consultation process; however, these data may be a first step in determining whether a proposed federal action overlaps with proposed critical habitat.USE LIMITATIONS*** 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 the this dataset as: NOAA Fisheries Service. Endangered Species Act Critical Habitat Geodatabase. Silver Spring, MD: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Office of Protected Resources (OPR). ***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. 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. *** Shorelines/Bathymetry Layers *** The accuracy of this dataset is dependent upon the accuracy and resolution of the datasets (e.g. shoreline, hydrography, bathymetry, 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 and water body boundaries change. Unless otherwise noted, assume the boundary reaches the most current river, estuary, or coastal shoreline delineation available. It does not include land. For shorelines, we used NOAA’s Continually Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP), where available. Where not available, we used Coastal Change Analysis Program C-CAP shoreline data. For bathymetry, we used the following datasets:North Atlantic: USGS Bathymetric Contours for East Coast 2013South Atlantic: Depths used for the proposed critical habitat designation of the lobe star coral.East Pacific: California. Department of Fish and Game. Marine Resources Region 2001.Central Pacific: University of Hawaii Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center and depths used for the proposed critical habitat designation of the Pacific coral, Acropora globiceps.Standard spatial reference is the World Geodetic System 1984 geographic coordinate system (GCS_WGS_1984, EPSG well-known identifier 4326).

Process Steps:

• 2023-12-15 00:00:00 - As described above, this species’ HUC-based critical habitat dataset was modified from the polygon-based species “agency-official” NMFS critical habitat data. This HUC-based critical habitat file represents the HUC-12 watersheds (USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/watershed-boundary-dataset) that intersect with the “agency-official” critical habitat polygon-based data. The data were reviewed and revised to add any additional HUC-12 watersheds that were determined to have hydrologic connectivity to the critical habitat.