Summary

Description

This project is a cooperative effort between the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, Biogeography Branch, the Pacific Islands Benthic Mapping Center, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Fishery Science Center, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, University of Hawaii, BAE Spectral Solutions, and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to map the coral reef habitats from shoreline to shelf edge of Tutuila, American Samoa by visual interpretation and manual delineation of sonar and IKONOS satellite imagery. A three part habitat classification system was used. Benthic features were mapped as polygons and labeled with geomorphologic structure, reef zone, and percent hard bottom attributes.