Bye bye marine monument!

Thanks to my good fiend, Mr. John Gourley, who convinced the governor and the Legislature with his letters and verbose editorials, the Pew Charitable Trust has decided to leave the CNMI and take their ideas, and their glossy looking, professional proposal elsewhere (Personally, I prefer a shoddy, dull presentation, because the glossy ones hurt my eyes). I can only wonder what Mr. Gourley’s interests and motives were for wanting to kill this idea? And, aah, the spectacular, fabulous, awe-inspiring, wonderful, amazing irony and timing, of passing a resolution against the proposed Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, on none other than Earth Week! What are the chances? It was truly a great week for the death of an environmental bonanza.

Yes, Pew is gone. Mr. Jay Nelson of the Ocean Legacy is now in England, working with governments more amenable to the concept of a marine sanctuary in areas of the world’s oceans, away from the likes of the National Marine Fisheries Service or WESPAC with their champion: Mr. Gourley. Jay Nelson has the lofty goal to protect those ocean areas for future generations and for the life of the planet. This is apparently too noble of a cause for the CNMI to even consider after passing a joint Senate resolution against it. Angelo will be without a job and will probably leave the CNMI in a couple of weeks to go work on a candidate’s Presidential campaign, where the people may appreciate more the work he is doing. He has no boat trip to go on anymore, anyway, since the $150,000 boat trip was canceled. You know the one: the big boat trip to Maug, Uracus, and Asuncion to garner international fame and glory for the CNMI with a team of photographers from the National Geographic magazine, and Jean Michel Cousteau, the son of the famous marine researcher, Jacques Cousteau. All that is now relegated to the history books of the CNMI in the pages of failed opportunities, where it will cozy up to the OTEC project that the CNMI lost a couple of years ago. It is a sad day for the CNMI, indeed! What a pity. . . Way to go WESPAC!!!

Let’s look on the bright side: We can now let the fishermen fish all they want! The fishermen from Rota can fill up their boats with gasoline at $5 per gallon to go 400 miles to the top three northern islands and decimate the bumpheaded parrotfish for a one time slaughter in Maug. I thought they were too big at any rate. It would be kind of reminiscent of the old days in the Wild West, where the American buffalo herds were so thick and plentiful; they turned the prairies black; the ground trembled with their passing; and when people would kill as many as they could, just for the sport of it. They can sustainable harvest the fish in the same way. Or, they could follow WESPAC’s lead, which allowed the fisherman in Hawaii to harvest all of their lobsters. Oh, no more lobsters in Hawaii? I guess that’s too bad for Hawaii. Poor, poor Hawaii, and the sad fate of the monk seals that are dying out. See the following link for the details of the two ongoing federal investigations of WESPAC: http://belammc.com/wespac/

Well, let’s not forget those manganese nodules, either! We can mine the proposed monument area for manganese nodules! Of course, everyone knows there are billions of dollars of potential treasure in manganese nodules (?) just waiting for some enterprising company to harvest off the bottom of the ocean. Only an idiot would pass this one up, right? Manganese nodules of economic importance probably do not even occur in the proposed monument area, but that will not stop us; nor, will the fact that the CNMI has no control over its mineral rights. Why should it bother us that manganese nodules take millions of years to grow and are found in the abyssal plains at depths of 18,000 feet or more, which is nowhere near the Marianas? We’ll spend an additional $500 million to do further studies and research the potential just like they did in the 1960s and 1970s. Then, we will do some more studies of the studies before taking any actions. Who cares, if it is not economically feasible? All I can say is that Kennecott Copper Company really gave up too easily. They really should spend more money to get those nodules off the ocean floor, than what they are worth. Maybe, they could stockpile them and sell them a few thousand years into the future when the price goes up? It really is easy to look this stuff up on the Internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_nodule

We don’t need Angelo, either! What has he ever done for Saipan? All he does is stir up trouble and controversy, like presenting glossy proposals on a fantastic opportunity: The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. Do we really need someone to organize beach cleanups, plant trees, recycle, and care for the environment? Never mind!!!!!! Ron Kramis, when he was here, spoke of a new, better Saipan, that was clean and with beaches that actually looked nice without all the trash. He spoke of a feeling he had that Saipan had become, in the span of only two years, “The new and improved Saipan,” a destination, he could recommend to his friends. As the Public Involvement Coordinator for the NFWF Coral Reef Awareness in Saipan project, Angelo, made us realize the value of our marine environment. By presenting this monumental proposal, he was just taking the next step forward by working for the Pew Charitable Trust to protect a small area of the planet for our future by promoting an idea: The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. An area of the ocean, which has to date, brought no economic value to the CNMI. What has Mr. Gourley done for us, other than to destroy us?

And, finally, who needed the Ocean Legacy or the Pew Charitable Trust, anyway? Who needed the annual influx of $10-$20 million dollars of federal funding for the CNMI? What for? Who cares or wanted all those good paying jobs? All those jobs the local people could have had, could have prepared for by studying courses at NMC; they are all gone: Poof! And: “We Don’t Need No Stinkin Visitor’s Center!” It would just bring in more of those troublesome tourists and an annual budget of millions. WESPAC thinks that World Heritage status for the NW Hawaiian Islands would harm it, because it would draw too many tourists. So, the conclusion to be drawn from WESPAC, is that we may not want to create the monument in the Northern Mariana Islands at all, because it might attract too many tourists. The CNMI wouldn’t look good, having all those tourists and researchers coming to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, spending money, staying in hotels, renting cars, chartering boats, investing in the CNMI, and eating at restaurants. How can that possibly help the CNMI? Are we not doing just fine without all that money? After all, it only represents about 10 percent of the annual CNMI budget. Please, do not count the spin-off value of those dollars.

Finally, I would hate to be anyone associated with the demise of this proposal, which is, quite simply put: “The best idea, the CNMI has ever had dropped into its lap.” Bobby Grizzard said it best, when I introduced her to Jay Nelson: “What a great idea! It’s a no-brainer! It will never fly in the CNMI! It makes too much sense.”

Bye bye monument! Goodbye opportunity! Hello CNMI!