The Impact of a Ship Grounding and Associated Fuel Spill at Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa

In 1993, the grounding of the Taiwanese ship Jin Shiang Fa at Rose Atoll spilled 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel, causing extensive coral reef damage and triggering an algal bloom. Three years later, recovery remains limited, with opportunistic algae dominating and minimal regrowth of the crucial reef-forming crustose coralline algae.