Local fisheries experts are exchanging their knowledge with scientists from the Pacific Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Guam and Saipan at a workshop this week, aimed at improving data on the various types of fish, shellfish and other marine species found in local waters.
Sometimes the same fish is known by different names to scientists, fishermen and consumers in different parts of the Pacific and world for that matter.
Participants for the workshop have been gathering fish samples caught on boats and along the shore and sharing the different names of those fish and other marine resources.
Kimberly Lowe, manages WPac-Fin which stands for Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network, a database that stores, summarizes, and processes all fish data collected in the territories.
She explains that the data from American Samoa is collected by the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources from surveys on fish and marine life caught on shore and on boats.
Play Audio
