This document provides an assessment of ecological condition, with an emphasis on soft-bottom habitats, in coastal ocean waters of the U.S. continental shelf off south Florida, from Anclote Key on the Gulf coast to West Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast, inclusive of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Sampling was conducted in May 2007. The project was a large collaborative effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), NOAA/Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). This project is part of a series of studies, similar in protocol and design to EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and subsequent National Coastal Assessment (NCA), which extend these prior efforts in estuaries and inland waters out to the coastal shelf, from navigable depths along the shoreline seaward to the shelf break (approximate 100 m depth contour).