Ocean Industry

The last few years have seen a rapid development in the technologies applied to ocean survey including the use of GIS. The activities of the ocean industry sector are wide ranging—from offshore oil and gas facilities management to deep-sea fishing. The need for accurate global positioning on the earth's surface is paramount and challenging in the ocean.

GIS provides help to the users in the ocean industries in several ways including visualization of data, data storage, and decision support applications. GIS has been used for planning purposes in the ocean industry arena for many years and provides invaluable information regarding the various commercial activities pursued offshore.

GIS has also provided a means to store this data effectively. The cost of gathering geospatial data when working within the ocean industry is extremely high. GIS is an excellent tool that adds value and capability to any ocean data collected.

GIS Tools

• Alaska Biological Science Center
• Glacier Bay Ecosystem GIS

Resources

• Davey Jones' Locker, Dr. Dawn Wright, Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University.
• Monterey Bay Bathymetry and DEM Shaded Relief Images
• National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), NOAA
• National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), Ocean Geosciences
• A Geographic Information System for the Endeavour Segment, Dawn J. Wright and Russell E. McDuff
• Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping, University of New Hampshire
• Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Arctic Modeling Group
• Earthguide, University of California at San Diego
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Mapping Program
• Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI)