Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge Rose Atoll is located at 14° 32' S and 168° be under the joint 08' W, approximately 130 nautical miles jurisdiction of the east-southeast of Pago Pago Harbor, Department of American Samoa, and is the easternmost Commerce and Samoan island. It is the southernmost the Department of unit of the National Wildlife Refuge the Interior. System and shares the distinction with Jarvis Island of being the only National The Samoan Wildlife Refuges located south of the Islands are part equator. of a chain of volcanic Rose Atoll is nearly square, with the seamounts that ocean-side slopes about 1.5 miles in extend more than length. It is one of the smallest atolls 1,000 miles along in the world, consisting of two low a west-northwest sandy islets, Rose and Sand. Each is to east-southeast located on a coralline algal reef axis. Unlike the enclosed by a lagoon. A single channel more mature 8 feet deep links the lagoon to the sea. volcanic islands The lagoon is about 1.2 miles wide and up and flat banks to to about 65 feet deep. Rose and Sand the west, Rose Islands cover areas of about 14 and 7 acres lacks wide respectively. The submerged lands and offshore banks, waters within the Refuge ( out to possibly 3 nautical miles) include approximately indicating an 39,066 acres. older history of volcanic Rose Atoll is part of the Territory of subsidence. American Samoa and was established as a National Wildlife Refuge by The lagoon floor cooperative agreement between the has an undulating Government of American Samoa and sandy bottom, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and much of which is Wildlife on July 5, 1973. Public notice covered with algae in the Federal Register was published and more than a © Phillip Colla April 11, 1974. On February 1, 1975, dozen isolated President Gerald Ford, by Proclamation patch reefs. The upper surface of the Island.” Captain Louise de Freycinet No. 4347, exempted Rose Atoll from a atoll perimeter reef is a hard, smooth later christened the isle “Rose” on general conveyance of submerged lands floored flat, awash at low tide and October 21, 1819, after his wife who was around American Samoa to the covered with vigorous growths of unlawfully traveling with him at the American Samoa government. He Porolithon coralline algae that form time. stated the submerged lands out to connected patches and ridges of a rich 3 nautical miles around Rose Atoll would pink color up to 3 feet wide or more. The first scientist to land on the island was probably Dr. Charles Pickering, a Human History physician naturalist who explored the The early Polynesians of Samoa likely atoll when the ships the Porpoise and visited the atoll periodically over the the Vincennes of the U.S. Exploring past millennium or more, and the atoll Expedition (1838-1842) met there in 1839. has a Samoan name “Motu o Manu,” Rose Atoll has been the subject of literally meaning “island of seabirds.” approximately 300 papers and reports The first European to see the atoll was over the last century. These describe Jacob Roggevven on July 13, 1722. He the geology, geography, biology, named the atoll Vuyle Eyland, which meteorology, and history of the area. translates roughly to “Foul or Dirty Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, 2 Rose Island has sustained only brief prevented natural human habitation in recent history. In recovery of the 1860s, a short-lived attempt was coralline algae made by a German firm to establish a within the fishing station/coconut plantation at grounding area. Rose Atoll. A house was built and Then in April 1994, coconut trees were planted. After the a massive Germans abandoned the station as bleaching event unprofitable, a Samoan family stationed on killed off most Rose as caretakers continued to live corals to a depth of there for a few years. Sand Island is a about 65 feet off shifting sand bank and could not support the ocean facing human habitation. Rose Atoll was also reef slopes. In chosen as a dive-bombing practice range 2007, the last during World War II. It is unclear remaining debris © Phillip Colla whether or not this was implemented. was removed from Rose Island the atoll, and In October 1993, a 120-foot Taiwanese monitoring of reef recovery will continue building species at the atoll in shallow longline fishing vessel, the F/V Jin into the future. depths. Rose Atoll is the only atoll in Shiang Fa, ran hard aground and Samoa and in the National Wildlife broke up within weeks on the reef on Existing uses are limited to research Refuge System dominated by crustose the southwest arm of the atoll. As a and monitoring activities carried out by coralline algae at shallow depths rather result of the grounding, the entire the Fish and Wildlife Service, National than stony corals. 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel aboard Marine Fisheries Service, and the the vessel was discharged into the American Samoa government. Rose Atoll’s outer reef slope is located marine environment. During Because Rose Atoll is one of the most on the seaward side of the atoll and subsequent weeks, the fuel spread unique and least visited areas of the consists of an irregular and often steep across the reef flat into the lagoon and world, its marine and terrestrial slope down to a depth of more than down the seaward slope. Physical communities provide a unique 650 feet, and presently dominated by damage to the reef was also caused by opportunity for research and afford an mixed corals and coralline algae to wreckage and vessel debris. invaluable scientific baseline for depths of 150 feet. In some areas, a Supported by the ship’s insurance, biological and geological studies of the shallow reef terrace is located on the limited salvage operations were low Pacific islands. upper slope before the reef plunges attempted within a month and were almost vertically to deeper waters. successful in removing the bow section Access to the atoll is restricted by the Spur and groove formations occur on the of the wreck. However, the rest of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and entry shallow reef terrace in some locations. wreck deteriorated quickly, and into the lagoon or onto the island is The reef flat is hard consolidated dissolved iron from the wreckage prohibited without prior approval. In substratum that is exposed during stimulated invasive blue-green algae and order to prevent the introduction of alien monthly spring tides. species to the island and lagoon, The lagoon is almost entirely enclosed Refuge staff by shallow perimeter reefs, except for a maintain a rigid narrow channel on the northwest side. entry permit The inner edge or shallow back-reef of application and the reef crest alternatively slopes down review process. to a shallow shelf or terrace or steeply sloping deposits of coral rubble Marine periodically carried over the reef crest Resources by large waves. About 15 patch reefs One of the most reach the lagoon sea surface from striking features depths of 20 to 50 feet and are of Rose Atoll is concentrated on the southwestern half of the pink hue of the lagoon. The lagoon floor is sandy the fringing reef, with a few isolated Acropora table-coral caused by the patches on the bottom and scattered dominance of a around the perimeter of the flat-topped, crustose coralline steep-sided pinnacles that extend up to James Maragos/USFWS Netting and scrap metal from the F/V Jin Shiang Fa in algae that is also the surface. Wave exposure is low in all 2004, later removed from the reef the primary reef- lagoon habitats and high on the outer Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, 3 algae. This low and described from the lagoon at Rose in diversity may be 2006. Deep diving submersible surveys due to the lack of in 2005 sponsored by the Hawaii seasonal Undersea Research Laboratory and collecting. FWS revealed a plethora of species and life forms not observed at shallow Despite its small depths including tunicates, stalked size, Rose crinoids, many fish, and unusual sea supports the stars. largest populations of The two islands at Rose Atoll are giant clams, important nesting sites for the nesting sea threatened green sea turtle in turtles, nesting American Samoa. Satellite tags seabirds, and rare attached to the nesting green sea James Maragos/USFWS Pocillopora corals on southwest forereef species of reef fish turtles at Rose have shown that these in American turtles migrate between American reef slope and reef flat. Hurricanes in Samoa. In 2002, fish densities at Rose Samoa and other Pacific island nations 2004 and especially 2005 passed close to Atoll were higher than at other (i.e., Fiji and French Polynesia). In or over Rose, causing erosion to the American Samoa islands, but only about addition to the migratory breeding islets and injury to vegetation and reef half those found in the Northwestern population of turtles at the atoll during communities. Hawaiian Islands. The most recent 2008 the nesting season (August to surveys reveal declines in edible fish February), a small apparently resident Coral communities at Rose presently species. Giant clams are most abundant population of juveniles lives on the atoll. include about 100 species and are on the bottoms of the pinnacles in the Endangered hawksbill turtles have also distinctive and quite different from those lagoon. of the other islands in Samoa. Coral cover, abundance, species richness, and The fish communities at Rose are also diversity are low compared to other distinct from others in the Samoan reefs in the archipelago, but high Archipelago.

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