Data acquired during a recent survey of coastal Florida and the Bahamas have provided an opportunity to correlate normal and near normal incidence acoustic returns with distinguishing seafloor sediment characteristics. These include physical property measurements (both in situ and laboratory) as well as bottom textural measurements derived from diver observations and from video and stereo photography. Measurements were made with a calibrated 1–3 piezocomposite transducer, which offered a very narrow (∼8 deg) beam width over the 10–50-kHz transmitted chirp. In addition, a roll and pitch sensor mounted on the transducer and 0–5 deg ship motion allowed for a monostatic backscatter experiment. This resulted in quatitative measurements of reflectivity versus angle over a relatively broad frequency band. Interestingly, the measured reflection coefficients were significantly lower (especially at high frequencies) and exhibited a greater range in values than those obtained in laboratory tank measurements with a flat, level interface. Also, the range of reflectivity at any fixed angle and anchor location was greater than the systematic dependence on angle. This suggests that very slight ship motion combined with either bottom roughness or discrete scatterers is responsible for the variable reflectivity. [Work supported by ONR.]