AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR STUDY OF NEAR-SHORE BIOTIC DISTRIBUTIONS 



by 

 Mahlon G. Kel ly 



Although coastal areas contain some of our more valuable resources, 

 synoptic study of the large-scale distribution of shallow-water bottom 

 features is verv difficult because over-lying v/ater limits survey and 

 sampling. Suror i s i ngl y , although technology is available for ohoto- 

 graphing through the water to depths of more than 100 feet, little use 

 has been made of such photography for the study of biological resources 

 and of marine ecologv. Nonetheless, it is the biological features that 

 are most immediately and drastically affected by pollution and man's 

 activities along our coasts. Synoptic photography of shallow-water 

 bottom biota needs to be developed to monitor and study environmental 

 conditions and change. 



Color photomosaics have been obtained of approximately 200 square 

 miles of shallow water area on the west edge of the Bahama Banks south 

 of Bimini and in Biscayne Bay, south of Miami, Florida. These mosaics 

 allowed identification and mapping of the major biotic cover on the bottom. 

 This would have been nearly imoossible using conventional survey techniques, 

 In addition, distributional features were identified that could only be 

 detected using the perspective obtained with remote photograohy. Although 

 some of these features are incomoletely explained, they show important 

 relationship to such environmental conditions as water depth, sediment and 

 bottom geology, current scouring, wave exposure, etc. Also, man-made 

 effects such as siltation due to dredging operations, canal drainage, and 

 the effects of thermal outflow from power plants were reflected in the 



13-2 



