‘Expanding the Marianas Trench Monument would be premature’

The CNMI government would oppose any expansion to the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument similar to what was recently done for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, according to Manny Pangelinan, acting secretary of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“We don’t see the need to expand the monument. First, we got a monument here that we have to take care of. We want to see whether this monument is adequate or not,” he said.

Some involved with the creation of the MTMNM have made known their support of the expansion PRIMNM via social media, calling for expanding the monument here as well.

Pangelinan, however, believes that any expansion to the monument would first have to assess its current state.

“We have not given this monument a chance to develop or evolve itself,” he said.

Pangelinan said the necessary regulatory framework and enforcement in the monument have yet to be put in place.

From there, the CNMI can see whether the policy and regulations and management in place are working, he said.

“This is a huge monument,” he said.

He also pointed to the lack of enforcement in the monument as another reason, and cited funding, which he singled out as one obstacle in the monument’s delayed visitor’s center.

“The CNMI does not have the capability or funding resources to monitor this monument all the way up to Sarigan. We need the partnership and the assistance of the U.S. so we can help each other monitor this,” he said.

He said realistically speaking not too many people in the CNMI have the capability to go fish all the way to the Northern Islands and not leave an impact on the area.

“They don’t have the vessel capability to do long-line fishing,” he said.

MTMNM, established in the same year as the PRIMNM in 2009, has yet to see a visitor center established or a timeline for one.

Pangelinan, a member of the Mariana Trench Monument Advisory Council, said there has not been much development since public meetings on the visitor’s center last month.

President Obama expanded PRIMNM on Sept. 24 from 87,000 square miles to almost 500,000 square miles, creating the world’s largest marine reserve in the Pacific.

The Friends of the Monument recommended that MTMNM’s boundaries be extended to include its northern waters, and to close the entire monument to sustenance, commercial, and recreational fishing in a letter to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan in 2009.