A partner project of the Ჹɲ‘i Climate Data Portal

CRAG (Coral Reef Advisory Group) Library

The is to provide people planning to do research or visit American Samoan coral reefs with information about what species and ecological conditions are present, what studies have been done, and what we know about the reefs. Research on coral reefs of American Samoa began more than a century ago, so the researcher might use the CRAG Library to track changes over the past century. The reader may search the library by author (see the final paragraph on this page), or by subject (click on a selected Tag listed below). The user may search the library by Tag. The publications, tech reports, and memoranda with useful information have been organized into 21 subjects. Each paper in the library is tagged with the main subjects with which it is involved. 


The subjects tagged are —

reef management, visitor guidelines, administrative forms, research methods

all studies that include Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary

all studies that include the Aua transect that has been repeatedly surveyed after its establishment 108 years ago

: Manua Islands include Ofu-Olosega and Ta’u

Rose Atoll

Swains Island

currents near reefs, potential connectivity of larvae, seawater chemistry and physical parameters, wave action

temperatures, storms, and other atmospheric patterns and processes

input of terrestrial nutrients, sediments, freshwater, watershed management practices

living resource management practices, community-based, culture, policies, aquaculture

identification, distribution, ecology, community structure, physiology, changes with time

biology, ecology, community structure, changes in time, recruitment, growth

invertebrates other than corals, giant clams, crown-of-thorns

giant clams

crown-of-thorns seastar

all marine plants other than CCA

crustose coralline algae

sea turtles

whales, dolphins

“disease” is any impairment of vital body functions, so bleaching, parasites, physical damage are in this subject

any study using biochemical methods are included

reef structure, island sinking or rising

If the user has materials on American Samoan coral reefs that have not been included, please send them or any questions about CRAG Library to charlesb@hawaii.edu  If you have questions about research, issues, information, or outreach opportunities with American Samoan coral reefs, visit:

Users can easily sort the documents by author to quickly find the resources they need.  contains the metadata for each entry in the CRAG library. Papers can be found by first author alphabetically in column A. To search for all papers by a certain author, including those in which the author is not first, just push “ctrl” and “F” and enter the author’s name. Additionally,  contains the corresponding documents, typically in PDF format. The documents are organized by the first tag in the spreadsheet, making it simple to locate the desired files.