Capabilities

Data Integration & Analytics • GIS / Spatial Modeling (ArcGIS) • Decision Support Tool Development • Stakeholder Engagement & Requirements Discovery • Fisheries Management Support

Mission Context

Effective fisheries management depends on reliable, decision-ready data—yet many regions remain data-poor due to fragmented sources, inconsistent formats, and limited integration across programs. In Guam and American Samoa, fisheries managers faced a lack of unified tools to connect available fisheries, habitat, and management data into a usable framework for evaluating how spatial management measures contribute to biological outcomes for priority reef fish species.

Objective

Design and execute a pilot study that identifies and integrates available datasets, establishes data quality standards, and develops a practical spatial evaluation framework to support fisheries management decision-making in Guam and American Samoa.

@Orchard Solution

Under NOAA’s PIRO Fish-Based Area Necessary Credit (Fish-BANC) initiative, @Orchard was selected to lead a feasibility-focused pilot designed to determine what data existed, where gaps remained, and whether spatial management performance could be evaluated against explicit biological targets. @Orchard worked across fisheries-dependent, fisheries-independent, habitat, and management datasets held by multiple agencies, institutions, and programs—sourcing, gaining access, and then reconciling and normalizing information that had not previously been compiled into a unified form.

Using curated, quality-controlled datasets, @Orchard developed ArcGIS-based spatial management evaluation tools tailored to each jurisdiction. The pilot models provide fisheries managers a tool to assess how selected Spatially Managed Areas (SMA) contribute toward defined biological targets for priority reef fish species. The pilot also highlighted where additional data collection or refinement would provide the greatest value. Throughout the effort, @Orchard maintained sustained engagement with local agencies and stakeholders to ensure the tools reflected real-world management needs, supported transparency, and were practical for use—not simply delivered as technical outputs.

Based on the success of this pilot, NOAA awarded @Orchard a follow-on, two-year project to continue building out and operationalizing the Fish-BANC tool—expanding coverage to additional SMAs and up to ~20 priority fish species per jurisdiction, strengthening data pipelines, and refining the interactive GIS decision-support framework for use within the Jurisdictional Coral Reef Fisheries Management Plan (JCR-FMP) process.

Impact

The Fish-BANC pilot demonstrated a tool that could be used to evaluate spatial management performance against explicit biological targets through data that is properly integrated, quality-controlled, and translated into intuitive decision-support tools. By establishing a foundational dataset, delivering a working prototype for Guam and American Samoa, and clarifying remaining data and model gaps, @Orchard enabled NOAA and local partners to move forward with greater confidence toward follow-on phases focused on expanding species coverage, refining models, and strengthening long-term management decision support. This work reflects @Orchard’s approach to first-of-their-kind initiatives: start with what exists, identify what’s missing, and build practical solutions that can evolve into durable capabilities with real downstream value for fisheries managers and the communities that depend on healthy reef ecosystems.

This ongoing work helps NOAA and local fisheries managers make more transparent, data-informed decisions that protect reef ecosystems, sustain fisheries, and support the coastal communities that depend on them.

Prepared by @Orchard LLC. Approved for public release by NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office, March 2026.