Report of 2005 American Samoa coral reef monitoring program (ASCRMP)

Fenner, Douglas; Whaylen, Leslie; Tardy, Emmanuel

An updated summary of the first data collection for a long-term monitoring plan for the American Samoa Coral Reef Monitoring Program (ASCRMP) conducted in 2005. Eleven monitoring sites on the island of American Samoa were chosen. The core sampling regime consisted of coral condition, algal cover, fish abundance, length and biomass of selected species, macroinvertebrates abundance, water quality, and anthropogenic. Species lists of commonly sighted and most abundance fish are provided.... Review of ASCRMP Objectives: The primary intent of the ASCRMP is to collect data on a yearly basis by on-island staff in order to detect change and trends in the measured parameters over a period of years. The ASCRMP was not designed primarily to compare sites to each other based on geographic distribution, reef type, exposure, or impacts. However, when patterns appear in the data, such patterns will be explored, keeping in mind that the sites were not randomly chosen, nor chosen to represent all habitats, exposures, impacts, etc. Comparison with the results of other studies can help determine whether the observed patterns are real or spurious. Nor does the ASCRMP attempt to survey and describe all of the island's reefs. Rather, the purpose of ASCRMP is to collect data from the monitoring sites in order to provide long-term trend information about marine resources. Change over time is the most important objective and should be kept in mind when reading and reviewing the ASCRMP reports. As 2005 is the first year in the data collection for this long-term monitoring plan, this represents one data point. In following years of data collection for the ASCRMP, additional data points data will be added and can then be compared and analyzed within each site in order to look for trends in coral reef health.