Previous Story
NMI govt objects to marine monument plan
|
Posted on Sep 01 2008
[B]KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii [/B](AP)—The territorial government of the Northern Mariana Islands is clashing with the Bush administration and conservationists who want to protect the ocean surrounding several Pacific atolls and reefs.
A delegation from Saipan made it clear last week at meetings of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in Hawaii that they do not like the ambitious marine protection efforts of the federal government or the Pew Charitable Trust.
Last Monday, Bush proposed protecting three remote island chains, including the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The proposal aims to designate a 115,000 square mile section of ocean in the CNMI’s northernmost waters as a national marine monument. It will cover three islands: Uracas, Maug, and Asuncion. It would be the largest ocean conservation effort in history.
Saipan Gov. Benigno R. Fitial says his government is capable of managing, developing and protecting the waters without the federal government or a nonprofit organization.
A local environmental group, however, has welcomed plans to consider parts of the Pacific Ocean marine sanctuaries or monuments.
Ignacio Cabrera, the chairman of Saipan-based Friends of the Marine Monument said in a letter to the editor that the move is “a positive step.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity, especially for our youth to learn more of our natural resources that we have here in the Commonwealth, especially these three islands up north,” he said.
Also, in a newly released scientific report, backers of proposal say the region is increasingly under threat from human activity and ecological changes.
The report from the Pew Charitable Trust contains a warning from Dr. Rusty Brainard, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that the remoteness of the area around the islands of Maug, Uracus and Asuncion will not protect them.
Dr. Brainard says the area is only a day away by boat from Saipan and it would be easy to significantly exploit them.”
The report also says the area contains 19 species of whales and dolphins, including some of the world’s rarest species of beaked whales.
It also has the greatest diversity of seamount and hydrothermal vent life yet seen on the planet.
