The well-being of islands communities is intimately tied to healthy oceans, such as Moorea in French Polynesia, where the delivery of ecosystem services is particularly threatened by climate change. Yet, comprehensive assessments of the social-ecological system, which are critical for management and to ensure the sustainable use of ocean services, have not been completed at a local level throughout a disturbance regime. In this study, the Ocean Health Index (OHI) tool has been used to assess the marine social-ecological systems and track changes to the system during a natural disturbance regime. The index has been adapted to Moorea data availability, in which 52% of data layers were local datasets, and social-ecological context. Results show that there is room for improvement in several goals, including protected places, iconic species, artisanal fisheries and biodiversity. Cyclone and outbreak of coral predatory starfish affected mostly habitat-related goals, which showed recovery after disturbance, as did the remaining goals and overall OHI score. These findings indicate that management efforts should be targeted towards biodiversity conservation through marine protected area establishment and ongoing monitoring. This study demonstrates the value of localized OHI assessments in understanding the impacts of natural hazards and the ecosystem services they provide.
