"This document is intended as a reference and provides guidelines for training, sampling, and data entry for the monitoring of reef fish populations as part of the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP) led by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. The standard operating procedures outlined in this report apply to the Pacific RAMP surveys that CRED and its partners conduct in the coral reef ecosystems of ~ 50 primary islands, atolls, and shallow banks in the Hawaiian Archipelago (including the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument), the Mariana Archipelago (Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument), American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (Wake, Johnston, Palmyra, and Kingman Atolls and Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands). As part of CRED's ecosystem assessment and long-term monitoring efforts, reef fishes and the benthic habitat are surveyed at Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) sites selected using a stratified random sampling design. The details of the methods employed are outlined here"--Intro.

Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP)
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

Pacific Ocean