The dynamic and sometimes vulnerable nature of the California coastal kelp resource, critical as habitat and food for hundreds of related species, required the development of systematic methods for accurately assessing its extent and vitality. Until 1989, the California state-wide coastal kelp resource had only been sporadically mapped and analyzed since an initial state-wide visual survey conducted in 1915 (Rigg 1915). Earlier ground based estimates of kelp canopy extent have given way to modern aerial surveys, which cost effective and accurate methodology for the mapping and quantifying shore kelp resources (Jamison 1971).

A substantial portion of the kelp resource habitat falls within the NOAA/National Ocean Service, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). As part of its conservation and management mandate, the MBNMS established and conducted a kelp resource inventory program within the sanctuary-wide coastal zone in 1999 and 2000. MBNMS acquired data with 70-mm vertical aerial infrared photography. This data set contains 525 infrared aerial photos digitized to archival format directly from the original 70-mm slides of the California Coastal Kelp Resource Project 2000. This data set also contains survey area maps. Data slides and maps were digitized in archival format as part of a joint MBNMS and NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) project with funding from the Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP) of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (CDMP Task Order Number L-24).