 |  | _________ |  Soil erosion, overfishing, and urban pollution persist
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 To help save the reefs of American Samoa, get active with these groups: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
| | _________ |  The combination of Acanthaster starfish infestations, natural disasters, and man-made industrial pollution has severely damaged coral cover in this U.S. territory. Reefs near Pago Pago have been slow to recover from the past decade's series of cyclones, possibly due to man-made stresses. The tide may be turning for corals here: In April 1997, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt dedicated the 50th U.S. national park, the National Park of American Samoa, encompassing tropical rainforests and coral reefs. And the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary will get more attention soon thanks to big donations from the private sector, earmarked for submarine surveys: Backed by $5 million from San Francisco's philanthropic Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and $775,000 from the National Geographic Society, the Sustainable Seas Expedition will use two Canadian-built exploration subs to examine all 12 U.S. national marine sanctuaries. | ||
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