Essential Fish Habitat depth polygon.

Essential Fish Habitat depth polygon.

To support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems, reef fish assessment surveys are conducted as part of Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA) during Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP) cruises in the Main Hawaiian Islands region by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). REA is a useful method for gathering data pertaining to ecologically significant biological components of a reef habitat over small spatial scales. Because the method provides a quick "snapshot" of major reef biota during a single dive or snorkel survey, it is particularly useful in assessing remote areas that are only rarely visited and where little time can be spent. Surveys are conducted along a set of transect lines. With their high level of taxonomic resolution over small spatial scales, REAs are a good complement to towed diver surveys, which are conducted over larger spatial scales but with a lower level of taxonomic resolution. For more information, please see: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/ecosystem-sciences-division-standard-operating-procedures-data-collection-rapid

Within the depth limits of safe, no-decompression SCUBA diving (generally to 90 feet depth), NOAA-certified Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) divers conduct towed diver surveys (TDS) as a method of assessing relatively large areas of reef habitat. This method involves towing two divers (one collecting fish data, the other collecting benthic data) behind a small surface craft that is moving at a velocity of 1-2 mph. Although the driver of the surface craft attempts to follow a depth contour, the divers also actively maneuver the "towboards" they are holding onto so as to maintain a relatively constant elevation above the surface of the reef. Towed-diver surveys are typically 50 min long and cover about 2-3 km of habitat. This map layer shows the centroid location of towed diver surveys conducted throughout the main Hawaiian Islands between the years 2005-2010.

Boundaries of fish replenishment areas (FRA) along the leeward (west) coast of Big Island in Hawaii. In order to replenish populations of heavily collected aquatic species, a network of FRAs comprising 35% of the coastline were established by the State of Hawaii in 1999 through the West Hawaii Regional Fisheries Management Area (FMA), administered by Hawaii's Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR). Though fishing is permitted (with some restrictions on lay net fishing), aquarium collecting is prohibited in these areas. For further information, please see: http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/regulated-areas/west-hawaii-regional-fishery-management-area/

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.

Shoreline of Jarvis Island

Shoreline of Johnson Atoll

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) staff conducted shore-based creel surveys which have 2 major sub-surveys; one to estimate participation (fishing effort), and one to provide catch-rate (CPUE), species composition data, and size of fishes. As is the case for all of these shore-based surveys, shore-based means fishing without a powered boat and can include effort such as spearfishing. DFW made early attempts at shore-based creel surveying back in the early years, but many problems existed and there were limited resources available. It is not likely that the older data was converted from the Apple to the PC environment, but this needs to be checked. A new survey design was created and implemented in about 2005 and is continuing. It has mostly focused on the west coast lagoon side of Saipan but recently has been extended to the south and part of the west coast where some shoreline areas are accessible as well. These data are considered confidential.

These data provide an accurate high-resolution shoreline compiled from imagery of JARVIS ISLAND, U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS . 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