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This collection of articles provides a glimpse into the marine and wildlife resources in American Samoa's tropical, oceanic environment. The articles were written by 8 biologists at the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR), National Park of American Samoa (NPS) and Land Grant Program at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC). Our purpose in writing these was to make the results of our studies available to local teachers, students, visitors and whoever else might be curious about Samoa's unique environment. The use of English, Samoan and scientific names of plants and animals varies.

The magnitude 8.3Mw earthquake struck 175 kilometres south of the Samoan Islands on 29 September 2009 at 6:48am local time.   A few minutes later, a series of earthquake triggered tsunami waves hit American Samoa, Western Samoa and the small northern island of Niuatoputapu in Tonga.  The tsunami waves, some of which are said to have been as high as 6m, caused fatalities, casualties and devastated entire communities in the Pacific Island countries.

This remote chain of 13 islands (9 inhabited) and two atolls is located 140 south of the equator near the International Date Line. It is divided into two political entities, the US Territory of American Samoa and the neighboring independent country of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa. The land area of (western) Samoa is approximately 15 times larger than the land area of American Samoa

This guide presents a vivid visual reference to all the land birds and breeding seabirds found across Samoa and American Samoa. Designed for ease of use in the field, it features detailed colour illustrations and concise identification cues to support naturalists, researchers, and birdwatching enthusiasts in the South Pacific.

The American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (“DMWR”)began working with local communities on the island of Tutuila in 2001 to develop the Community­Based Fisheries Management Program (“CBFMP”). Through a series of meetings with representatives from select villages, DMWR sought the voluntary participation of communities in an effort to manage and monitor their own coral reef resources. The program has grown to include seven villages, each of which is responsible for all aspects of managing and monitoring their own resources, with technical assistance from DMWR. Committees from each village have designed and implemented management plans which vary from village to village, but generally include some type of restriction on fishing activity on part or all of the reef fronting their villages. Many of the participating villages have reported anecdotally that they have seen improvement in their resources since the program’s inception, but as of yet, there has been no effort devoted towards scientifically monitoring these areas. As such, a robust, quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of the management efforts has not been possible in any of the participating villages. While it may be too late to obtain useful “baseline” data that shows the state of the marine resources prior to the implementation of the management plans, it is imperative that monitoring commence as soon as possible to allow for future analysis of the trends in the health of the reefs of the villages participating in the CBFMP.

Mongabay rainforest profiles: American Samoa, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu