According to conventional wisdom, small, fast-growing fish are impossible to overfish because their populations are so large and grow so quickly. Yet we are now seeing disquieting signs that conventional wisdom is wrong. Most significantly, scientists are reporting ocean predators emaciated from lack of food, vulnerable to disease and without enough energy to reproduce. Scrawny predatorsdolphins, striped bass, and even whaleshave turned up along coastlines around the world. Recreational fishermen are losing both their target fishand their bait.
This American Samoa Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management in American Samoa.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 245 p.
This guide provides essential information to better understand
the role of marine protected area networks to achieve marine
This Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management for Pacific pelagic species.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 234 p.
This paper describes the channels known as hoa which are characteristic of atoll land rims and of some islands on barrier reefs, where they often dissect previously more continuous reef-top sediment accumulations and conglomerate platforms. They are
The Gilbert Islands are a part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Crown Colony of Great Britain. They lie in the Pacific Ocean directly southeast of the Ilarshall Islands and are located between the parallels of g045' S. and 3'30' N. latitude, and the meridians of 1720301 E. and 177 15' E. longitude. All of the islands in this groui3 are low islands related to atolls. They are inhabited by Micronesian and Melanesian people who are greatly dependent on materials from the sea for food.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Helen Reef in the Southwest Islands of Palau is the one of the greatest marine assets of the Hatohobei (Tobi) People and of the Republic of Palau. Helen Reef is known as one of the most biologically diverse coral reef atolls in the Pacific and historically one of the most biologically abundant reefs in Palau,including acclaimed populations of plentiful marine resources including, trochus, turtles, sea cucumbers, seabirds, and many large reef fish.
Reef coral collections from American Samoa are in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, W. Germany. The author has a collection of 790 coral specimens for a total of 1547 items known to be from American Samoa.
A total of 177 species (including 3 species of non-scleractinian corals) belonging to 48 genera and subgenera (including the genera Millepora and Heliopora) known to date are listed with data as of frequency of occurrence and habitat.
Available online
Healthy marine resources require healthy, intact ecosystems. Marine and coastal ecosystems are highly productive and deliver various goods and services that support communities and economies, including food security, clean water, recreational
opportunities and other benefits. Effective area-based protection, through MPAs, helps maintain ecosystem health and productivity, while safeguarding social and economic
The colonization of the lagoon by coral reef fish larvae was compared between two islands of French Polynesia, the atoll of Rangiroa and the high volcanic island of Moorea. In both cases the larval flux coming into the lagoon followed a daily cycle.
Coral atolls are natural laboratories within which to examine ecological processes (Sachet, 1967; Lee, 1984). They are often isolated, in some cases little disturbed, and have a geologically recent history of terrestrial plant colonisation. Reef islands around the rim of most atolls are Holocene in age. They are composed of biogenic skeletal sediments and have developed since reef growth caught up with sea level which stabilized after post-glacial sea-level rise. Plant colonisation of most of these islands must have occurred over a period of no more than 6000 years.
The conservation status, ecology, and cultural importance of sea turtles at the three Polynesian atolls of Tokelau are presented. The green turtle, Chelonia mydas. is the most common species, occurring as a migrant breeder mostly during September through November. The hawks- bill, Eretmochelvs imbricata. is present in small numbers at all three atolls, but nesting is only known at Nukunonu Atoll. A third species, the loggerhead, Caretta caretta. has also been recorded on rare occasions.
Most of the 96 national monuments designated under U.S. law
are on land. The majority are managed by the National Park
Service, though some are administered by the Bureau of Land
Management and other agencies. At this point neither the
name of the proposed Mariana Trench Marine National Monu-
ment (MTMNM) nor the management structure has been de-
termined. For guidance one could review the process of the
recently designated Papahanaumokuakea Marine National
Monument (PMNM), which is placed within the purview of the
Nukutipipi atoll (5 km2), of volcanic origin 16-17 million years old on the Pitcairn (hot spot) Hereheretue line, presents a land flora and fauna of low diversity but with a Pisonia forest and hundreds of resident red-tailed tropic birds. Nukutipipi suffered from the 1983 hurricanes : destruction of vegetation and motu as well as sand lagoon mollusc populations. The north and south rims present original geomorphological structures.
Fish communities in the lagoon of the Tikehau atoll were studied by only a few researchers. Harmelin-Vivien (1984) studied the distribution of the main herbivorous families (Scaridae and Acanthuridae) in the lagoon and on the outer slope to 30 m in depth. The total fish community of the outer slope was studied by Galzin (1985, 1987) at 12 m in depth. These studies were carried out in the southwestern part of the atoll. Spatial organization of coral associated fish community was studied throughout the lagoon by Morize et al. (1990). Most of the other
Jonathan Sauer (1961) remarked, in his Coastal Plant Geography of Mauritius, that the chance to study the coastal vegetation there was like being "admitted to a field worker's paradise"
and stressed that "most tropical coasts are beautiful and exciting, particularly to people concerned with natural processes . . .." The same can certainly be said for the tropical coasts of the often Edenized islands of the Pacific Ocean. Their "beauty and excitement" is considerably enhanced,
More than 20 cetacean species are known to exist in the
Pacific Islands Region, which encompasses the U.S. Exclusive
Economic Zone, or EEZ (waters out to 370 km from shore) around
the entire Hawaiian Archipelago. Johnston Atoll. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Baker and Howland Islands. Jarvis Island. American Samoa. Wake Island, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, totaling some 5.8 million km2 of ocean.
Many of the species present are poorly studied throughout their