Education & Outreach

Education and outreach are instrumental in ensuring conversations about coral reefs and climate change is part of curriculums, conversations, public awareness, community engagement, and citizen participation. CRAG aspires to be informative, transparent, and communicative.

Le Tausagi

The CRAG Outreach program has been active via Le Tausagi, an inter-agency working group of environmental educators collaborating on conservation programs and community outreach. Increasing community buy-in, local capacity, and developing an informed public are all essential components to the goals of CRAG’s vision, each member agency, and all Local Action Strategies.

Snorkelers performing monitoring techniques

Quantitative Underwater Ecological Survey Technique (QUEST)

QUEST has been offered through the University of Hawaii for over twenty years and is well respected as an excellent marine science field techniques program. The American Samoa Community College (ASCC) has offered QUEST since 2011 and is proud to provide these skills taught locally here in American Samoa. ASCC, in partnership with Hawai’i Sea Grant, offers QUEST once a year in the spring semester.

Reef Check

Reef Check collaborates with the Education and Outreach Coordinator to assist in mentoring local marine science students on their research projects. This includes updating and adapting the global Reef Check program to increase suitability for local school students to snorkel at nearby reef flat sites.

PIPES Program

Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science (PIPES) is an umbrella program for several internship opportunities, located in the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Hilo's Office of Research and Community Partnerships, that places well-qualified UH students in natural resource organizations for a summer, building capacity for those organizations during the internship and beyond. The PIPES program has been in American Samoa since 1994 and has had 30 interns in the Territory.