Anchorage locations, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Beacon locations around Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Buoys around Saipan and Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Shallow water mooring (SWM) buoys around Guam, Mariana Islands

Marine obstruction points around Saipan and Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

The boundaries of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa exclude these two channels at Swains Island to provide access to the island.

Roads of Guam, Mariana Islands

Shorelines of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

These data provide an accurate high-resolution shoreline compiled from imagery of SAIPAN HARBOR, CNMI . This vector shoreline data is based on an office interpretation of imagery that may be suitable as a geographic information system (GIS) data layer. This metadata describes information for both the line and point shapefiles. The NGS attribution scheme 'Coastal Cartographic Object Attribute Source Table (C-COAST)' was developed to conform the attribution of various sources of shoreline data into one attribution catalog. C-COAST is not a recognized standard, but was influenced by the International Hydrographic Organization's S-57 Object-Attribute standard so the data would be more accurately translated into S-57. This resource is a member of https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39808

Locations of monitoring sites related to the Pacific Islands Network (PACN) Benthic Marine and Marine Fish monitoring protocols administered by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). These monitoring sites are located within nearshore waters of the following National Parks: * Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (NHP) on the western shore of Hawaii Island (Big Island) * Kalaupapa National Historical Park (NHP) on the nothern shore of Molokai in Hawaii * War in the Pacific National Historical Park (NHP) on the western shore of Guam * National Park (NP) of American Samoa on the northern shore of Tutuila The benthic marine community within PACN is a complex ecologic system and a diverse taxonomic environment, including algae and corals and other invertebrates. Reef-building corals are the primary architectural organism and are sensitive to environmental degradation; therefore, they are a good indicator of overall health for nearshore marine ecosystems. Primary stressors to coral reefs include disease, bleaching, sedimentation, eutrophication, storms, and global climate change. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has proposed using coral reefs as a worldwide indicator ecosystem for global climate change (Spalding et al. 2004). For these reasons, the PACN has chosen to implement long-term monitoring of benthic marine communities. Benthic marine communities are most closely linked with marine fish, and monitoring efforts will be conducted at the same time and location to maximize data value. Fish are a major component of coral reef ecosystems. This highly diverse assemblage of carnivores, planktivores, herbivores, and detritovores serves a variety of ecological functions. Fish affect ecosystem structure, productivity, and sustainability. Selected species can act as indicators of general reef health, environmental stress, and potential ecosystem changes. Fishing is increasingly recognized as a principal threat to Pacific Ocean coral reefs and other marine ecosystems worldwide. In this respect, it is highly probable that most of the Pacific island national parks can be categorized as "impaired" to "seriously impaired" in terms of their fish communities. While the harvest of fish and other marine creatures will be addressed in a separate (fisheries-dependent) monitoring protocol, data collected through PACN marine fish monitoring contributes to the overall fish analyses by providing an in-water (fisheries-independent) assessment of the size and abundance of species within park waters.