In 1999, under contract to NOAA, RPI and co-Trustees prepared an Emergency Response Plan/Environmental Assessment ERP/EA to quantify injuries caused by the stranding and subsequent removal of nine fishing vessels in Pago Pago Harbor following a typhoon in American Samoa. RPI conducted a rapid natural resource damage assessment and characterized the benthic habitats around the vessels prior to USCG response actions. At each survey area, the trustees conducted surveys to characterize broad categories of substrate and biota in the path of the proposed causeway and platform areas. The data gathered from the surveys was used to determine and quantify injury to the reef flats due to response actions, as detailed in the ERP/EA co-authored by RPI. In 2008, RPI was tasked by NOAA to write a detailed account of events surrounding the groundings, response, restoration, and monitoring from 1991-2005.