The Samoan Archipelago in the South Pacific consists of 18 islands surrounded by coral reefs and divided politically into Independent Samoa in the west and the U.S. Territory of American Samoa in the east. The archipelago is home to several hundred species of reef-building coral species, many of which are difficult to identify even by experts. This first-ever field guide to the corals of Samoa provides a resource for coral reef scientists, managers, monitoring teams, and anyone else interested in learning about these fascinating organisms. This is a field guide for the identification of 217 species in 62 genera of hard or stony corals.
