Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Have you seen this yellow buoy at Fagatele Bay and wondered to yourself, what is it and what does it do? It is an Ocean Acidification (OA) Buoy that measures real time data of carbon dioxide in both the atmosphere and ocean, temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyll.

Why is this important? Because ocean acidification is a threat to food security, economies, and culture because of its potential impacts on marine ecosystem services. This monitoring project will advance our understanding of the carbon cycle of coral reefs in American Samoa and the impacts to coral ecosystems.

Here, scientists are conducting maintenance work; cleaning sensors on the buoy, and inspecting the connector line beneath the surface.