In 2010 the village of Fagamalo, Tutuila, American Samoa, designated a no-take Marine Protected Area that sees the protection of 2.25 square kilometers of ocean. Because little is known regarding the status of living marine communities in the area, and at the request of the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, NOAA scientists conducted surveys to assess the status of the benthic communities and establish a baseline against which to compare temporal change. The tabular data described here were collected via belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) according to protocols established by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). In 2015 data were collected at 18 stratified randomly selected sites. These data include: 1) an assessment of coral colony density and size-class distribution for the selected monitoring sites; 2) an assessment of coral recruitment at the monitoring sites; and 3) an evaluation of coral colony condition, including mortality, disease, and bleaching. These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive. Additionally, photoquadrat benthic images were also collected (documented and archived separately).

This study demonstrates the important role that long term monitoring programs can play in understanding the natural variability and long term trends in the coral reefs of American Samoa. One benefit of this study is that it provides an overview of the condition of the reefs on all the main volcanic islands simultaneously. It also provides a broad scale perspective for understanding the results of the site dedicated monitoring programs in Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Pago Pago Harbour (Aua transect: see below), which provide a much longer term perspective on the reefs of Tutuila (85 and 25 years respectively). This dataset includes the status report (PDF and MS Word) and raw survey data (MS Excel) made in 1996 and 2002. Survey sites include all islands of American Samoa, although remote atolls of Swains and Rose were not made in 2002. Surveys were also made in the country of Western Samoa.

Six permanent transects in Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, American Samoa, and 11 other sites around Tutuila Island were established in 1985. This dataset contains coral reef surveys taken in 1995 and 1998 along these established transect lines. Data were taken on 30-m transects along isobaths on the reef platform and at depths of 3, 5, 9, and 12 m. Data on algae, fish, and macroinvertebrates were also collected by other investigators, but are not included with this data set. Data includes coral species, size distribution of colonies, frequency, density per 100m2, relative density, percent cover and relative cover.

In an effort to detect spatial and temporal changes in the structure of the coral reef community, coral coverage and reef fish density and diversity were documented at selected sites along the Maui coastline using standard transect methodology and SCUBA. Physical parameters examined included: wave exposure, water motion, sedimentation levels and water quality (temperature, salinity, and turbidity). Nine long-term monitoring sites have been established since 1989.