National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa is developing a long-term monitoring program to address key ecological and environmental indicators across the sanctuary’s habitats. These efforts will facilitate improved qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the sanctuary’s marine life. The sanctuary science team is implementing coral reef monitoring and is working with partners to develop mesophotic, pelagic, and deep-sea capabilities.
In addition, Dr. Charles Birkeland has been monitoring the health of Fagatele Bay since the 1980s. His most recent surveys suggest that the reef in the bay is thriving with high coral cover. The sanctuary also works with local and federal partners including the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, National Park of American Samoa, Coral Reef Advisory Group, and Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources to support long-term monitoring of the surrounding coral reef ecosystem.
Collecting sound data helps us to understand the lives of marine creatures, revealing their behaviors, movements, and interactions. As part of the long term monitoring efforts, National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa is also monitoring sound in the sanctuary. Past efforts have used an ecological acoustic recorder at Fagatele Bay and Rose Atoll and we are now using newer tools developed by the Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring Project (SanctSound) program.
The acoustic data allows us to track vocalizations by humpback whales and spinner dolphins, vessel traffic, and ambient sounds of fish and invertebrates. With the help of machine learning, new algorithms are being developed to also track vocalizations of individual fish species to evaluate activity in the sanctuary. This is made possible in collaboration with the SanctSound program with support from Ocean Science Institute and Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Along with data collected from the carbon dioxide buoy, data from the sound data is helpful in building up comprehensive data for Fagatele Bay for long term monitoring.
Through an array of moored carbon dioxide buoys near our nation’s coral reefs, NOAA is working to improve our understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification on reefs and the species that depend on them. A monitoring buoy in Fagatele Bay collects data on carbon dioxide from surface seawater and the atmosphere as well as data on water temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen, and chlorophyll. The scientific buoy at Fagatele Bay makes National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa the only "NOAA Class III" monitoring site in the Southern Hemisphere, having the highest level of coral reef monitoring provided through NOAA. All data can be viewed online via NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System.
National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa has partnered with rebreather divers from Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, University of Hawai’i, Old Dominion University, and the Bishop Museum of Hawai‘i to support mesophotic exploration and monitoring. Efforts began in 2017 and have included fish and coral surveys at depths of up to 330 feet, documenting a wide variety of species. Some of these observations were likely new to science. Those partner efforts have expanded to include a range of deep-sea exploration activities. Many of these efforts require significant infrastructure with specialized equipment and ships. To expand this effort, the sanctuary acquired a small remotely operated vehicle (also known as an ROV) that will be used to explore depths of up to 900 feet within the sanctuary.
For questions or more information on sanctuary research, contact Valerie.Brown@noaa.gov.
