Meeting highlights concerns about plans for marine monument

  The location of a visitor’s center, sanctioned military activities, and enforcement of regulations were among the major concerns raised by residents who attended the public scoping meeting for the draft management plan for the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.

Some 50 individuals attended the meeting conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last Friday at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.

“This is your island, you’ve lived here for generations, so we want to hear what you think should go on the management plan,” said NOAA’s Heidi Hirsh at the start the meeting. “We want to hear what opportunities you think the monument may contribute to science and exploration, education and outreach, traditional and recreational uses, and anything else you may have that’s interesting or important to you.”

Organizers set up five different booths (Visitor’s Center, Education, and Outreach; Traditional Access for Cultural Purpose; Regulations and Enforcement; Science & Exploration; and Recreational & Economic Activities including Tourism) manned by Fish & Wildlife and NOAA representatives for one-on-one talks with and solicit written comments from the meeting’s attendees.

Friday’s audience ranged from government officials and employees, college students, farmers, and fishermen to regular folk all wanting to share their thoughts about the management plan for the marine national monument-roughly 96,714 square miles of pristine waters and submerged lands up north.

House Vice Speaker Felicidad Ogumoro’s main concern was the type of military activities that will be taking place there. “There should be none at all. If you’re saying that it is a conservation area, how do I know that those areas are going to be protected if you allow the military ships to go through?” she said in an interview.

Rep. Fred Deleon Guerrero agreed, saying that military use of the monument is “a big concern.”

“I don’t see the need to have the military there. Science exploration, any other type of activities, yes. Military, I don’t feel comfortable with that,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Deleon Guerrero pointed out that the local government opposed the creation of the monument at the start but the “federal government failed to consider that.”

“Now, we have to make omelet with broken eggs,” he said. “Whatever opportunities the monument can afford us, I’m really hoping it would come to fruition.”

Ogumoro emphasized that economic activities, particularly mining exploration, should be allowed in the monument since it has been found that the area is rich in certain minerals such as manganese, which could profit the Commonwealth.

“We’re desperately in need, we’re exploring every possibility that we can find to help us develop economically.This is our livelihood,” she added.

Gary Sword, vice president of Blue Continent Communications Inc. that owns the KKMP radio station, stressed that the monument should only be used for science studies and subsistence fishing.

“With those studies, you can do economic activities somewhere else. Those areas should be kept as science haven,” said Sword, an American Samoa native and married to a Chamorro, former representative Rosemond Santos.

When asked who should be allowed to fish in the area, Sword recommended that anybody with a valid local ID should be allowed to fish in those waters, also citing the “rigid” federalization law as a way to ensure that those who are legally in the CNMI are the only ones that will have access to the monument.

Several of the attendees stressed that the visitor’s center for the monument should be located in the CNMI.

“We sacrificed a lot of our islands north so it should be designated here,” said former Commonwealth Retirees Association chair Juan M. Sablan, adding that there could also be some satellite offices on the other islands to encourage more tourists to visit this part of the Pacific.

Sablan also emphasized that the enforcement of regulations affecting the monument should rest on the federal government, given the meager resources of the local government.

“We are broke. The government cannot force to patrol all the way to the trench up there,” said Sablan. He also said “it’s very important” to have the regulations published locally to reach out to more members of the community.

Senior policy adviser John B. Joyner, one of the members of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Advisory Council, encouraged the public to continue submitting comments about the monument.

“As the management plan is developed, it wants to include concern, consideration, and response to a wide variety of interests because this monument is to affect us all,” he said.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife superintendent Susan White is pleased that Friday’s meeting had a “great” audience who were involved and were sharing their thoughts about the monument. “Tonight wasn’t about our answers.It’s about receiving comments from the public,” she said.

White and the rest of the visiting federal representatives also held a public scoping meeting on Tinian last Saturday. They will have the meeting on Rota tonight at the Rota Round House in Songsong Village from 6pm to 8pm and in Guam on Feb. 29 at the University of Guam in Mangilao from 6pm to 8pm.

“These are the only scoping meetings we’re going to hold from the scoping perspective but we will come back absolutely when we have a draft plan and present it to the public,” said White.

White said the public can also submit their comments and identify other scoping issues by email to MTMNM@noaa.gov with “Marianas Trench MNM” in the subject line or by posting their comments at www.regulations.gov.

“The most important thing is we hear from the people and we’re really happy to be here and to be on the ground and get the process rolling. It’s been a long time coming but there’s a future ahead of us,” she added.