Working together on marine resources issues

Editor’s Note: The following is the text of the speech Gov. Eloy Inos delivered at the 159th Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Meeting at the Fiesta Resort and Spa Saipan on March 17, 2014.
First, let me welcome our distinguished guests, and all of our off-island visitors to the CNMI for the 159th Western Pacific Council Meeting. I am also very pleased to see many of our local residents and members of the fishing community here today
I would like to start by recognizing the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s effort in being the voice of the people, particularly in regards to the management of our marine resources and the development of federal policies that ultimately control how we live and interact with our marine environment and resources living in the waters surrounding our islands.

This is important work and as a trusted member of our island community, I am pleased that the Council tries its best to represent the people of the Northern Mariana Islands and is willing to bring controversial issues to our attention and provide a public venue, such as this meeting, where these issues can be openly deliberated.

The meeting agenda contains several extremely important issues that are exceptionally relevant to the people of the Marianas. While some federal actions and proposals you will be talking about are in the planning phase, there are other federal policy decisions that are already being implemented by the responsible federal agencies that we must carefully consider.

This is so because these federal regulatory actions affect our lives and it is crucial that we involve ourselves as meaningful participants rather than indifferent bystanders. We should not in my opinion allow the federal government to unilaterally make decisions that affect our lives and heritage—our very culture.

Of course, one such issue I am referring to is the continued and possible expansion of military uses of the nearshore waters surrounding FDM and Tinian. And Pagan. Another important issue is the status of the federal government’s conveyance of the submerged lands around all of our islands to the people of the Northern Marianas. These are clearly two of the most important issues in the CNMI today.

As we continue our discussions with the Department of Defense on the utilization of our submerged lands for national security and safety purposes, we ask the DoD representatives to recognize that the consequences of some of their actions will place marine resources out of the reach of members of our fishing community (and could place unfavorable travel restrictions on our local waters).

It may be possible, given our good working relationship with DoD, to arrive at an amenable solution with respect to the expanding proposed military activities in the CNMI. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the conveyance of submerged lands that make up the Marianas Trench Marine Monument Islands Unit of Uracus, Maug, and Asuncion.

For whatever reasons, President Obama has determined that the people of the Northern Marianas should not be given ownership of the submerged lands around the Islands Unit islands until such time as a co-management plan can be created and approved by two separate federal agencies responsible for the Monument. This is not such an easy task.

And while I can understand the military’s desire and need to control certain parcels of submerged lands for national security and training purposes, the issues involving the submerged lands around the Islands Unit in the Marine Monument do not fit this same model of an overriding national defense purpose. I do not clearly understand why these submerged lands have been withheld.

In any respect, the people of the Northern Marianas have yet to receive any communication from either the departments of Interior or Commerce providing us with a detailed explanation of what is actually holding up the creation and implementation of an appropriate co-management plan, which will permit the conveyance of the Monument’s submerged lands to finally occur.

It has been over five years since the Monument was created and some of the deadlines specified in the presidential proclamation have not been met and it is unclear when they will be met. This was one reason why I wrote to President Obama and requested that he establish a cut-off date when the management agreement plan would have to be finalized or to allow the conveyance to automatically take place.

Unfortunately, it is my opinion that we are still years away from the final enactment of a co-management plan and I continue to believe that the people of the Northern Marianas should not have to continue to wait for the enactment of an approved management agreement to be in place before our submerged lands are returned to their rightful owners.

Accordingly, I ask the distinguished members of this Council for their support in our efforts to have the Monument’s submerged lands presently being held by the departments of Interior and Commerce to be returned to their rightful owners.

With respect to fisheries, I would like to recognize the contributions of the Council over the past years, especially with regards to fisheries development in our waters. The Northern Marianas was recently provided a concept plan to improve our fisheries infrastructure through the construction of a dock facility that would support a small pelagic fishing fleet. In support of the potential infrastructure development, a Mariana skipjack assessment was conducted and a report on potential seafood marketing options that are available in both Guam and the Northern Marianas will soon be completed.

As you are all aware, the CNMI’s fisheries flourished during the period of time in which the Japanese controlled our islands. However, the world has changed since then and we now face a greater need to approach fisheries development from a sustainable and responsible perspective. We need to plan and utilize our current state of fisheries knowledge in order to develop sustainable pelagic and bottom fish fisheries. I do know that the South Pacific Commission assists various island nations all through the Western Pacific in developing sustainable fisheries, but the question is, can NOAA help the CNMI address its needs in fishery development? Our cousins to the south in Palau are certainly considering this issue.

And finally, I also want to recognize the scheduled discussion on the federal preemption issue and CNMI laws that address our management of sharks and the practice of shark finning. This discussion is certainly needed as there are anti-shark finning laws here in the CNMI which I support, but which some believe do not conform with federal shark conservation laws. It is my hope that this federal preemption issue is carefully analyzed and worked-through and addressed before there is any additional talk of federal preemption.

As we proceed with all these discussions, there may be times when we have different ideas on certain issues. Despite these differences, we must acknowledge that many, if not all, of these issues will directly affect our island community. Marine resources are a great part of our culture, are for the use of everyone, and should not be limited to one group’s vision. We should work together on this important issues and find appropriate resolutions to outstanding differences.

I sincerely hope that all of our visitors enjoy their stay on Saipan and that you have some time after the meetings to relax and enjoy our island. Thank you for your time and please enjoy your stay.

Eloy S. Inos is governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.