Results of the Territorial Monitoring Program of American Samoa for 2010, benthic section

"Because the tsunami in Sept 29, 2009 not only destroyed the boat ramps at Pago Pago Harbor and Fagasa, and damaged almost all DMWR vehicles beyond repair by immersion in saltwater, plus all three DMWR boats were inoperable almost the entire year, only a small amount of data was collected. Only 2 sites on the reef slopes were surveyed in 2010. Coral cover for the two sites has not shown any trend over the last 6 years, and in 2010 was 32%, very similar to that of the average of all 12 sites in previous years. The live coral index remains very high compared to other reference averages such as those for the Pacific, South Pacific, Indo-Pacific, and world. The most common coral lifeform remains encrusting, and Acropora , Montipora , and Pavona are the most common genera. The number of genera per site in these two sites has remained stable over the last 6 years. Encrusting Montipora is the most common species at Aunu'u and Pavona varians the most common at Faga'alu. Aunu'u had more coral species than Faga'alu. The number of species was steady at Faga'alu but increased in the last two years at Aunu'u. Algae and other categories did not show trends over years except that coralline algae increased in 2010 in Faga'alu." 2012 CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System) Library Public Domain 1858