Pacific Remote Island Coral Reef Fish and Benthic Surveys, 2014-2025

NOAA's National Coral Reef Monitoring Program collected reef fish and benthic data in the Pacific Remote Island Areas from 2014 through 2025. The stationary point count method catalogs species richness, abundance, and biomass of diurnally active reef fish in shallow-water hard-bottom habitats. Visual estimates of benthic cover and topographic complexity are also recorded, using a stratified random sampling design based on island, reef zone, and depth.

Use Cases

• Modeling reef fish species richness and abundance trends based on stratified survey data
• Analyzing relationships between benthic cover categories and fish assemblages based on functional group estimates
• Assessing coral reef ecosystem health and change over time based on long-term monitoring from 2014
• Evaluating the effectiveness of stratified random sampling for marine habitat surveys based on the described design

Strengths

• Data collection spans over a decade, from 2014 through 2025
• Surveys employ a stratified random sampling design based on island, reef zone, and depth
• Method catalogs three key metrics: species richness, numeric density, and biomass

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Stationary point count (SPC) surveys and visual benthic estimates conducted by NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ecosystem Sciences Division.

Time Range

2014 through 2025

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-14 22:59:07.440557; freshness should be verified

Geography

Pacific Remote Island Areas