NOAA coral reef monitoring fish data from sites across Micronesia from 2009-09-29 to 2015-09-25

Fish census data were collected from sites around Micronesia as part of the ongoing Micronesia Challenge. Information on the program can be found at (www.micronesiareefmonitoring.com). Survey sites were selected around each island to be representative of natural environmental gradients, management, and major reef types. Thus, full site designs can be used to evaluate both island trends and site-specific trends. The size and abundance of fishes, which are generally consumed by people (hereinafter food-fish), were collected by four calibrated observers, with individual observers being consistent across jurisdictions. Fish assemblages were estimated from 12 stationary-point counts (SPCs) conducted at equal intervals along the transect lines. At each SPC, the observer recorded the species name and the size of all food-fish within a 5 m circular radius for a period of 3 minutes. Food-fish were defined as acanthurids, scarids, serranids, carangids, labrids, lethrinids, lutjanids, balistids, kyphosids, mullids, holocentrids, and sharks. The data in this submission include fish identification, counts, and sizes obtained during SPC surveys.