NOAA and American Samoa fishers finish a 15-day bottomfish life-history survey

NOAA Fisheries published a Sept. 29 feature on a completed collaborative bottomfish life-history survey in American Samoa with the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources and local fishers. The team worked from NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette for 15 days and collected more than 900 biological samples.

The work supports a shift from managing American Samoa bottomfish as one complex toward species-specific assessments for six key snappers, including onaga (palu-loa), ehu, giant ehu, lehi, goldeneye snapper, and gindai. A 2023 peer review flagged the need for better age, growth, and reproduction data; the last comparable survey was about a decade ago.

Samples are headed to Honolulu for processing. NOAA said the new collection is large enough to begin drafting life-history profiles for all six management-unit species — a foundation for future stock assessments and fishing limits in a fishery that is both commercial and culturally important.

Photo: Jamie Barlow/NOAA Fisheries.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: NOAA Fisheries — Advancing bottomfish research through community partnerships in American Samoa (Sept. 29, 2026).