Pago Pago Harbor

The harbour is a drowned volcanic caldera, its steep sides rising straight from the water to peaks often cloud-wrapped, creating a dramatic backdrop that makes the approach by boat feel less like arriving at a port and more like entering a mountain lake that has been filled by the sea, and the scale of the surrounding ridges means that even large vessels appear small against the bulk of the volcanic cone.

The water is deep enough for large vessels to moor alongside the shore, and the StarKist tuna canning factory that has defined the local economy for a century sits directly on the waterfront with its loading berths extending into the channel, and the smell of fish processing is detectable from the ridge road above on certain wind directions.

Colourful cargo boats and the traditional Polynesian canoes called paopao cluster near the main dock, and the sound of the sailing canoes going out in the early morning is one of the persistent sounds of harbour life, and the small-boat fleet leaves before dawn to reach the fishing grounds at first light.

From the ridge road that circles the harbour rim, the view down encompasses the full sweep of the bay from one headland to the other, and the change of light during the day is rapid as the sun moves behind the peaks, turning the water from mirror-flat silver in early morning to deep blue by midday, and in the late afternoon the harbour enters a golden phase as the light comes from the west and the peaks cast long shadows across the water.

The Tutuila island legend of the goddess Nafumea running around the island to escape a jealous husband is attached to the harbour's distinctive shape, and the village of Laufou sits at the precise point where the story says she paused, giving the whole bay a mythological dimension that is openly taught to visitors, and the legend is commonly recounted by local guides at the overlooks.

The harbour was used by German, British and American naval forces in successive colonial periods, and the remnants of that history are visible in the concrete foundations and road alignments that predate the American annexation in 1900, and the successive periods of administration have left a layered cultural record that is visible in the architectural character of the waterfront buildings.

Fishing is the economic backbone: the skipjack tuna catch that feeds the StarKist cannery represents one of the largest per-capita fish consumption rates in the world, and the local fleet of small boats leaves the harbour before dawn most mornings of the year, and the cannery shift changes are one of the temporal rhythms that structure the daily life of the harbour district.

The harbour's dramatic setting — volcanic peaks rising straight from deep water — is visually one of the most striking in the Pacific and has few equivalents outside of New Zealand's Bay of Islands or Fiji's Suva Harbour.

It is the living centre of American Samoa, and understanding the harbour is essential to understanding the territory's history, economy and daily culture.

The view from the ridge road around the harbour's rim is a classic South Pacific panorama and is considered one of the most photographed vistas in American Samoa.