An initial meeting between the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MNRE), Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries (MAF) and the National University of Samoa (NUS), through their partnership with the Conservation International (CI) and Waitt Institute, was conducted this week to discuss the Marine Research Expedition for Samoa, expected to take place in September 2022.
This Expedition provides an opportunity for Samoa to collect and update the information to address data gaps on our coastal and marine environment.
In a statement issued says, it specifically supports one of the strategic priorities on ‘Research and Data Collection’ in the nation’s framework – the Samoa Ocean Strategy (SOS) – to protect 30% of our oceans, under the Integrated Management Solution (IMS) 4 – to improve scientific research, data collection and monitoring within our oceans.
“This meeting is expected to finalize the research sites & objectives, together with confirming the local Expedition Science Team.
The data anticipated to be collected from this Expedition, through biodiversity assessments, vary from fish populations, reef habitats, coral coverage percentage, seamounts habitat areas and physical properties of resources available in our marine environment.
In addition to this, the data collected from this research will help fill in the gaps and update science based information for the sustainable management of Samoa’s fisheries and marine resources.
The Samoa Ocean Strategy, or SOS, is the national policy framework that seeks to sustainably manage Samoa’s vast ocean and marine resources for the well-being of all Samoans now, and into the future. The SOS provides bold and comprehensive integrated ocean management solutions that will advance ocean stewardship and ensure the cultural and economic values that Samoans derive from their 120,000 square kilometer ocean are preserved for generations to come.
