The estuarine waters of Elkhorn Slough terminating in Monterey Bay, California present an excellent study site for testing the limits of hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy in a region with turbid sediment-laden waters and diverse coastal habitats including eelgrass and salt marsh. In July 2012, we undertook a field validation in this region of the Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter (PRISM), a new imaging sensor package optimized for coastal ocean processes. PRISM provides spatial resolutions up to 30 cm and spectral resolutions of 3 nm. In-situ sampling was conducted concurrent to the PRISM flights to measure inherent optical properties of the water column and sample selected benthic and coastal habitat spectral targets.