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The mission of NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) is to serve as the trustee for a system of marine protected areas, to conserve, protect and enhance biodiversity. To assist in accomplishing this mission, the ONMS has developed a partnership with NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment's Biogeography Branch (CCMA-BB) to conduct biogeographic assessments of marine resources within and adjacent to the marine waters of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries (Kendall and Monaco, 2003).

Healthy coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and economically valuable ecosystems on earth, providing hundreds of billions of dollars in food, jobs,

The Act declared Helen Reef as a State Marine Protected Area and called for a creation of a Management Plan. However, a Draft Management Plan came out of an Action Plan which satisfied the requirements from the Act. The Plan consists of a Vision that states: “We the Hatohobei people envision our islands to have an abundance of natural resources, a pristine healthy environment, and our community and friends are engaged in the sustainable use and management, utilizing traditional and scientific knowledge of our natural resources for us all today and our children for the future”

American Samoa is a tropical island located at approximately 14º South and 170º West in the South Pacific. American Samoa consists of five volcanic islands (Tutuila, Aunu'u, Ofu, Olosega and Ta'u), one coral atoll (Rose Atoll) and one low lying island (Swains Island). It is an unincorporated territory of the United States (U.S.) and is the only U.S. jurisdiction in the South Pacific. The most recent population estimate of 70,100 (U.S. DOC 2009) is approximately 13,000 more than the population in 2000 according to the U.S. Census. The islands are surrounded by steeply sloping coral reefs inhabited by over 250 species of coral and over 961 species of fish (Craig 2009). The majority of the population lives on the main island of Tutuila. Tutuila has a land area of 138 km2 and has steeply sloping terrain which provides very little cultivable land for the inhabitants.

Marine pollution is widely recognised as one of the four major threats to the world’s oceans, along with habitat destruction, over-exploitation of living marine resources and invasive marine species. Spills of oil and other chemicals into the marine environment, both from ships and land-based sources, is a significant source of pollution.