Data collected by scientists in the the water around the Samoas will allow assessment of stock levels, growth rates and threats species suffer.
Photo: 123 RF
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's research vessel, Oscar Elton Sette, has been used in the research over the past several months.
Some of the lead scientists were in American Samoa to discuss their findings with local and federal government agencies as well as the local resources owners.
Dr Joseph O'Malley said they focussed on snapper, grouper and coral reef species from which they took 200 data sets for further analysis on growth and the impact of latitude.
He said they also studied the feeding patterns of fish such as tuna and obtained more than 1200 bottom fish samples.
"By samples I mean things that allow us to estimate how old fish get, how fast they grow, how often their population turns over, how big are they when they reporduce. And we also did 20 mid water tows - we were focussing on the very small fish that tuna focus on."
