Table corals
Broad and flat.
National Marine Sanctuaries — CC BY 2.0 · National Marine Sanctuaries — Public domain · National Marine Sanctuaries — Public domain · LCDR Eric Johnson, NOAA Corps. — Public domain
Fagatele Bay is a small bay on the south-west coast of Tutuila, about 11 km in a straight line south-west of Pago Pago, its waters filling an old flooded volcanic crater. It was declared a national marine sanctuary in 1986 and is now part of the wider National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. The wider sanctuary is the most remote and the richest in marine life among US marine sanctuaries, with extensive coral reefs, including some of the oldest coral heads known on Earth. Fagatele Bay itself holds living tropical reefs home to fish of many colours and shapes. Underwater, broad table corals and branching corals spread out, parrotfish and reef fish swim among them, and sea turtles sometimes pass. On land, the bay is ringed by towering forested cliffs. The bay is hard to reach and needs a guide or a boat, and diving there is by paid trip. The ocean centre in Pago Pago has exhibits on the sanctuary, and fishing is banned inside the bay.
Broad and flat.
Among the reefs.
Forest-covered.
South-west Tutuila, American Samoa
No, you need a guide or a boat.
No, fishing is banned in the bay.