Data Download:
This site reports the
results of a seven-year cooperative effort completed in 1998, between the
National Ocean Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
to map the
types and extent of benthic habitats within the Florida Keys. It also announces
the completion and content of two products: an Atlas and this website.
These digital data are available in
ArcView™ shapefile format. You can download data by Map Tile,
group of protected areas, or the entire South Florida region. While
the shapefiles for each Map Tile or group of protected areas are relatively
small (on the order of 1 - 4 Mbytes), the shapefiles for the entire South
Florida region approaches 200 Mbytes in size. Be sure to download the Benthic Habitats README for important information
about these data.
Each Map Tile or group of protected areas contains all of the thematic data available, i.e., benthic habitats, bathymetry, aids to navigation, protected area boundaries, place names, etc. A legend to display these thematic layers is available. Click here to download the Legend (13 KB).
Click here to download the metadata for all of the thematic layers available. Click here to download a hypertext file of the benthic habitats metadata only.
Click here to download one or more of the 32 Map Tiles
Click here to download one or more of the five groups
of Protected Areas 
within the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary.
Click here to download the entire South Florida region (26 MB).
