Editing Micronesia (section)

== Economy ==
Nationally, the primary income is the sale of fishing rights to foreign nations that harvest tuna using huge [[purse seine]]rs. A few Japanese [[Longline fishing|long liners]] still ply the waters. The crews aboard fishing fleets contribute little to the local economy since their ships typically set sail loaded with stores and provisions that are cheaper than local goods. Additional money comes in from government grants, mostly from the United States, and the $150 million the US paid into a trust fund for reparations of residents of Bikini Atoll who had to move after nuclear testing. Few mineral deposits worth exploiting exist, except for some high-grade phosphate, [[Phosphate mining in Nauru|especially on Nauru]].

Most residents of Micronesia can freely move to and work within, the United States. Relatives working in the US who send money home to relatives represent the primary source of individual income. Additional individual income comes mainly from government jobs and work within shops and restaurants.

The [[tourist industry]] consists mainly of scuba divers that come to see the coral reefs, do wall dives and visit sunken ships from WWII. Major stops for scuba divers in approximate order are Palau, Chuuk, Yap and Pohnpei. Some private yacht owners visit the area for months or years at a time. However, they tend to stay mainly at ports of entry and are too few in number to be counted as a major source of income.

[[Copra]] production used to be a more significant source of income, however, world prices have dropped in part to large palm plantations that are now planted in places like [[Borneo]].