State of Coral Reef Ecosystems

The following subsections summarize by region what is now known about local reef characteristics, socioeconomic pressures and ecological impacts, condition of coral reef ecosystems, resource management and marine protected areas (MPAs), mapping and monitoring capacity. The information contained in this section is mostly from reports requested from and provided by the USCRTF Points of Contact representing the Governors of U.S. States and Territories. For more detail, readers are referred to the resulting nine Jurisdictional Reports, authored by 29 program managers and scientists, on the condition of their respective reef ecosystems are appended to the National Summary (see Appendices I-IX). Information contributed from over 75 experts and from a search of the literature was compiled and summarized by the authors for the National Summary, making the following sections an even more robust source of baseline information on the status and trends of coral reef ecosystems. In order of presentation in this section, summaries of the state of Western Atlantic and Caribbean State and Territorial reef ecosystems-Florida, Puerto Rico, and the USVI, the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and Navassa Island-appear first. Next, assessment reports on U.S. Pacific islands follow in order-Hawai'i, American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI, and the remaining remote reef systems under Federal protection. The Freely Associated States of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia have been included and appear last, but a report is not available for the Marshal Islands. The Marshall Islands are known to have biologically diverse and extensive reefs covering an estimated --- (Spalding et al. 2001). In 2001, the latter nations requested to be included in all USCRTF activities in light of their historical and current affinities with U.S. Pacific Territories; for this reason they were included. For an across-region comparison and summary on the condition of coral reef ecosystems, see the Recommendations and Conclusions section near the end of this report.