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Benthic habitat maps of the nearshore marine environment of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands were created by visual interpretation of remotely sensed imagery. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment - Biogeography Branch in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of St. John's coral reef ecosystem. One-meter panchromatic and four-meter multi-spectral data from the IKONOS satellite sensor were purchased for the mapping area. Photo-interpreters accurately and reliably delineated boundaries of features from this IKONOS imagery as they appeared on the computer monitor using a software interface.