These data identify the critical habitat designated (March 19, 2003, Federal Register Vol. 68, No. 53, Rules and Regulations) under the Endangered Species Act for the Atlantic sturgeon, Gulf subspecies (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi). The official NMFS critical habitat (SturgeonAtlantic_GulfSubspecies_20030319) for this sturgeon is comprised of both riverine critical habitat (line) data, Units 1 through 7, and marine/estuarine critical habitat (polygon) data, Units 8 through 14. Together the polygons and lines represent the entire final critical habitat designation.

Critical habitat constitutes areas considered essential for the conservation of a listed species. These areas provide notice to the public and land managers of the importance of the areas to the conservation of this species. Special protections and/or restrictions are possible in areas where Federal funding, permits, licenses, authorizations, or actions occur or are required. The purpose of these data is to visually represent the critical habitat areas for GIS analysis and display. Omissions of river distributaries may be possible due to the extent of source data (NHD) and because a number of the smaller streams are not named and easily identifiable. Based on the legal narrative unit descriptions in the Federal Register, all distributaries are included; however, they may not be graphically represented in this dataset.