American Samoa
American Samoa exhibits island biogeography constraints: 99% of exports come from one tuna cannery processing 100,000 tons annually on 76 square miles of volcanic islands.
American Samoa's economy runs on a single species: tuna. StarKist Samoa, the territory's lone remaining cannery, processes over 100,000 tons annually—producing 500 million cans that account for 99% of local exports. This extreme specialization creates monoculture vulnerability: the number of canneries has fallen from four to one, and real GDP declined 18.2% between 2007 and 2017 before stabilizing.
The territory exists because of Pago Pago harbor, one of the best natural deepwater ports in the South Pacific. The U.S. occupied these islands in 1900 specifically for this harbor, which became a naval coaling station and later a World War II staging area. When the Navy departed in 1951, the infrastructure remained—shaping the economy's transition from military to commercial fishing.
Geography imposes hard limits. Five volcanic islands and two coral atolls total just 76 square miles, with only 30% suitable for development. The population of 45,000 clusters 97.5% on Tutuila island, yet more American Samoans now live abroad than at home—a classic source-sink pattern where the population flows outward to larger economies while remittances and federal transfers flow back.
Like many small island economies, American Samoa depends on external support. Federal transfers provide essential infrastructure funding, and duty-free access to US markets keeps the cannery competitive against lower-cost Asian processors. A 2023 US-backed undersea cable now connects the territory to Guam and a dozen Pacific islands, potentially enabling economic diversification beyond fish. But for now, the territory's fate remains tied to global tuna markets and the continued viability of a single factory.