Coral Spawning on Saipan

Four days after the July full moon! Get your cameras ready that's tomorrow!

It's that time of year again! Time for mother nature to take the spotlight, front and center but first a few local links you may wish to check out in preparation:

Peter Houk, DEQ marine biologist extraordinaire has written a great piece in Beach Road Magazine as well as in the Saipan Tribune this past week.
The Marianas Dive Forum has a thread going discussing the upcoming event and with any luck a few of our members will be posting pictures and video of the event as it happens or as quickly as they can get dried off and download some pictures and video!
There are also a couple of other links you many want to check out if interested in reading a little more about how corals regenerate themselves. This one from the University of Guam, and this one from our friends in Palau where the corals spawn following the April full moon. Here's a link from the BBC with its own video.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control I will not be in the water filming this years event. In fact I won't even be in the CNMI! Trust me I'm not happy about it. Last year shortly after the coral spawning Marianas Dive was born in part because many divers out here felt not enough information about Saipan's diving was made available for people to take advantage of. One of the things we pointed to was how the coral spawn could occur under our noses with very few divers knowing about it or knowing exactly when it would occur. Many people expressed frustration with our marine biologists from the government agencies for not giving this event the attention it deserves and a proper "heads up" to local and international dive communities.

Well not true this year! I'm happy to say, this year at least, it is unlikely many divers will miss this spectacle from a lack of being in the water. The information has gotten out there and I have no doubt, it is at least in part, due to the activities of this group - another feather in the cap for all of us at Marianas Dive. Now lets just hope mother nature does her thing as predictably as she's done year after year and the battery packs on all those cameras hold enough juice to capture the action in detail. Did I mention just how frustrated I am not being there to do my part in bringing this spectacle to your computer screen!

At the moment when you do a Google search for "coral spawn Saipan" the top hit is (sorry Greg) a very poor video from Greg Morretti. He'll be the first to admit he was just happy to be there last year and capture anything at all since right before the dive he lost what I recall to be his second camera in about as many months. He captured this on one he borrowed at the last minute from someone else on his dive boat.



Here's another link to a Youtube video that comes second on the list for that Google search. When I saw it the irony of where the feed comes from and what large marine park they discuss in the piece was not lost on me. Hmmmmmm what do you suppose next years news report on KSPN could look like given mother natures predictability and the possibility of us having our own internationally recognized marine monument. Please, for all of you against the proposed marine monument concept WATCH THIS VIDEO!

Marine Monument - Get Informed

Another day another letter to the editor in the local papers. I shouldn't really complain since for the last two or three days my own letters have taken up full pages in both the Tribune and the Variety. Click on the links to check them out here, here.

Just before I sat down to do a post today I thought I had better check the papers. I already knew I wanted to write something about the information sessions being conducted by Pew and to comment on some of the views (both positive and negative) expressed during the initial ones on Monday.
Above you can see Jay Nelson form the Pew Charitable Trust as he speaks at the fisherman's association forum held at American Memorial Park (AMP). Here he comments on the wide range of international exposure and positive press the people of Hawaii received when their monument was designated.
The crowd was not large but their was a clear mix of supporters and non-supporters. There was a mix of fisherman and non fisherman. I'm glad that everyone was able to listen to William Aila (below) and ask questions. I'm not sure everyone left completely happy but I think everyone other than the Wespac folks now have a better understanding as to the process involved and how the people of Hawaii embraced and even pushed for their own monument.
William is a long time harbormaster on the Waianae coast of Oahu and commercial fisherman. He is well-known as an advocate for indigenous Hawaiian rights and works closely with the group Na Imi Pono. In 2006 he ran for Governor of Hawai'i in the Democratic primary. William was intimately involved in advocating for the protection of the NW Hawaiian Islands for Native Hawaiian cultural and religious reasons from the late 1990's through today and remains active in the decision body empowered to manage the NW Hawaiian Islands. He brings to the table a varied and extensive background in fisheries management with ten years of service on various Wespac advisory panels.

He is here to give a true first had account as to the Hawaii experience and to answer questions. He is not hear to sell the proposal but rather let people make an informed decision based on what actually happened and not scare tactics.

It is obvious from the most recent letter to the editor by Richard Benevente Seman entitled Leave all conservation measures to the people of the NMI that some are very, very, very mis-informed. Please Mr. Seman come to the information session and open forum tonight. It is at AMP and will be hosted by the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Harry Blalock. Mr. Seman, you owe it to your kids and in fact my kids to come out and hear the truth.

It would take me a very long time to completely dissect his letter today and point out all of the inaccurate statements but I'll focus on two.

1) He says that the people of the CNMI should be involved in the process in the beginning not before it starts, not when everything is already put together.

Mr. Seman this IS the beginning and this is the time that you and other local residents should be asking for a place at the table so you are ready when the process between the Federal government and the people of the CNMI actually starts. Right now Pew is here to assess the willingness of the people to look at the monument concept and to educate us as to what a monument designation means. It is then their job to report to the White House people at which time if things are favorable President Bush's people will contact ours and the process will officially begin. You can make the choice to kill this before it starts or you can reserve your seat at the table, it's up to you.

He goes on to state....
(Pew) Developed and drafted a proposed national monument for the CNMI without any collaboration with anyone;

Nothing is drafted, they are floating a concept. A concept that, if you open up your mind, you can develop into something you want.

I'll dissect this next entire paragraph from his letter with one picture and only a few words.

"For 30 years since we have become a U.S. commonwealth, the CNMI have been able to enact constitutional mandates, legislate laws and promulgate rules and regulations in the name of CONSERVATION without the aid and delegation of OUTSIDERS. Our people have led in the region in enacting conservation measures for the protection and sustainability of our natural resources. Our commonwealth has more designated marine sanctuary, wildlife conservation islands and more prohibited fishing gear than any other government in our region. Simply said, we are proactive when it comes to the protection of our natural resources. We can honestly say that we do what we need to do to ensure that our resources are used sustainably for the sake of our future generations".

Ok two pictures....
The top one shows the fishing line that divers pull form our Grotto dive site nearly every day. The second one a typical pile of batteries we find along the shore line during our Marianas Dive clean ups. It's worth mentioning that the Grotto is a marine sanctuary and to suggest that it is well managed as such is coming from someone with a bag over their head. Even the people at DFW know it is not well managed. They complain of not having enough money to do it properly. A Marine Monument designation for the Northern Islands would see money available to properly manage a vast area of the ocean that is NOT managed now. To suggest the people of the CNMI can do it on their own without federal money is a recipe for disaster, or I suppose, success if you're a foreign fishing vessel looking to pillage other peoples waters.

As far as not needing outsiders. How about taking a look at the make up of people currently employed at DFW, CRM and DEQ. Although there are a number of good local people there are also, many, many non indigenous people who you actually depend upon for the services these agencies provide. The marine biologists from all these agencies are, according to your definition,"outsiders".

Perhaps if you used the monies appropriated for the marine monument by congress each year wisely the college could develop a marine biology program that would allow for the training of locals to do jobs currently held by the outsiders. Hmmmmmm what a concept.

Mr. Seman (and all those who buy into this crock) please come to the forum tonight at 6PM, American Memorial Park. You owe it to your kids.

A Weekend of Books and Kids

On Friday afternoons, between 3:00 and 4:30PM, DEQ conducts a story hour for kids at Joeten-Kiyu Public Library. It is organized by the "soon to graduate" intern Somona as she sees groups from around the community educate kids on the importance of environmental protection.
This past Friday it was time for Marianas Dive. I had a small group of enthusiastic kids who were sharp in answering questions and knew quite a bit about the creatures we talked about. Two even won DVD's with their quick answers to tough questions!
I did a combination thing. We watched clips from The Underwater World of Saipan in order to help illustrate some of the marine behaviours we talked about as we read Annie Crawley' s book, "Ocean Life From A to Z". It's a great book and it has it's own DVD included!
After all was said and done I tried to instill some pride in the kids with regard to what our waters have and how our diving is really world class. Above I share with them a recently published article about Saipan diving in Sport Diver Magazine. February 2008, we made it into the top 100!
Click on the photo to enlarge. It's a good little snap shot of what we have to offer here and for them to see their home in a major publication was pretty cool for them too. They then wanted to watch more of the spotted eagle rays that are pictured in the story so we watched more of the Ice Cream dive!

Next Up on Saturday was the Rotary Club of Saipan's 3rd annual Parade of Books. I was the official photographer although there were no shortage of parents and cameras!
With Saipanda and Hard Rock dog guy taking the lead the participating schools first took a couple of laps around the Gym before preparing to preform their skits.

The crowd was large and appreciative of all the efforts, from the costumes to the actual choreography and performances.
The judging was apparently so tough they had to ask Mike Sablan to resign his post as public auditor just so he would not have any conflicts of interest as head score keeper. It looks like Mike has landed on his feet after leaving OPA!
There were a few classics performed like snow white and ....
a not so classic one by the kids from Tinian. They came all the way over and managed 3rd prize with a funny little story about a king who would not get out of the tub!In the end it was San Vicente Elementary and their performance of Frankenstein that raised the roof and allowed some very enthusiastic kids to take home first prize - 700 bucks and a big trophy too! A special thanks to NWA for a generous donation to make the event possible!

Congratulations to everyone who participated and to the Rotary for instilling the sense of importance for reading not only for the kids but for the parents too!

"Rare’s mission is to conserve imperiled species and ecosystems around the world by inspiring people to care about and protect nature".

Once again this past week Saipan's coalition of conservation minded individuals and organizations came together in an effort to protect our environmental assets for generations to come. Last week DEQ and the Nature Conservancy lead the way with Conservation Action Planning for a specific area of the island, Lau Lau Bay.
This time it was Brooke Nevitt and CRM leading the charge by bringing the Rare Pride campaign to our shores. Basically, in a nut shell, what this program attempts to do is raise awareness of environmental issues while helping to facilitate the behavioral change necessary to address those issues.

From their website....

Rare’s approach has been to develop a suite of social marketing and business development tools that motivate local communities to protect their natural surroundings. Rare’s signature Pride campaign builds grassroots support for environmental protection by training local conservation leaders in the use of commercial marketing tactics to build awareness, influence attitudes, and enable meaningful change. Pride campaigns produce a groundswell of support that leads to tangible conservation successes, such as new national parks, reform legislation, or reduction of threats from forest fires or over-fishing.

This campaign will focus on the CNMI's coral reefs. One aspect of the program is to determine and develop a mascot that will help spread the message of conservation and get people to rally behind the cause. The idea being that a flagship creature people recognize and identify with will inspire them to retain and promote the message and therefore extend the protection to other lesser known creatures and ecosystems.

The idea is that we need to identify and deal with the issues threatening the reefs as well as motivate people to take action. In general however, coral is not so sexy or exciting. It doesn't move, or smile at you like a dolphin. It's there and it's important but it normally does not instill any type of emotion in the casual observer unlike Nemo or some other loveable creature.

So once Brooke and community stake holders have an opportunity to put together the plan we will be asked to identify a creature we think is most appropriate to represent the mascot and motivate others to protect our reefs.

Pictured above is Reina Camacho of DEQ furiously trying to take notes and vote in my online poll all at the same time.

Which marine creature do you think the community will rally behind and therefore most effectively help raise awareness and save our reefs?

In upcoming posts I'll discuss each creature and give you my perspective but first I want to hear from you!

Vote now! Or leave a comment if you think of another one not yet mentioned in the poll!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Governor signs International Year of the Reef proclamation

Saipan kicked off the International Year of the Reef on Friday when governor Ben Fitial signed the proclamation designating 2008 as the year of the coral reef!

As part of the proceedings government and non-government agencies dedicated to protecting the aquatic ecosystems were asked to set up displays to raise awareness about what we have and what each organization is doing to help protect our resource for generations to come.

Marianas Dive early birds, myself, Mark and Bruce were the first to arrive and set up, thus, the primo location next to the entry way and the food!

The proceedings got underway shortly after 9AM when Teny Topalian from NOAA introduced the dignitaries including Dr. Joyner from CRM who read the proclamation.


The proclamaition.....

Whereas, coral reefs are of outstanding beauty, have long been connected to our subsistence and culture, provide a home for thousands of reef organisms, are known for their medicinal value, protect our shoreline from large storms and erosion, provide the foundation for our eco-tourism industry, and

Whereas, coral reefs are threatened by human impacts such as improper watershed development, sedimentation, marine debris, nitrification from sewage discharge,
over-fishing, boat groundings and anchor damage, chemical spills and global climate change, and

Whereas, the CNMI government and numerous community based organizations have implemented projects to reduce the threat of human impacts such as marine monitoring, bio research, re-vegetation and tree plantings, community awareness and outreach projects, public service announcements, community forums and workshops, development and distribution of marine educational resource materials, and

Whereas, there continues to be a need to increase awareness and understanding of coral reefs and to further conserve and manage our valuable coral reefs and associated ecosystems, and

Whereas, we the people of the Commonwealth have a responsibility to protect our coral reefs for future generations,

Therefore, I, Benigno R. Fitial, Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, do hereby proclaim 2008 as International Year of the Coral Reef. I urge all citizens to become aware, knowledgeable and action oriented towards the protection and conservation of our invaluable coral reefs.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 18th day of January 2008.

That's the governor above and the Lieutenant governor below giving his remarks about the value of our coral reefs. He was followed by a tag team state of the reef address by John Starmer of CRM (below) and Dr. Peter Houk from DEQ.

CRM, DEQ and DFW are the three main governmental agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing the rules and regulations affecting our waters. These three agencies have rarely seen eye to eye, it was interesting that both DEQ and CRM scientists gave presentations but not so of DFW.
All in all, two solid presentations with a primary message of conservation in order to ensure future generations can count on the sea for years to come. Many aspects of coral reef ecology were discussed including pressures such as global warming, population increases, improved harvesting techniques and others. Possible solutions such as improved enforcement for, and expansion of, marine protected areas were presented.

Really the only disappointing thing about the event was the lack of people, specifically the general public and school kids attending. The crowd was made up mostly of employees from the government agencies closely involved with the reef, as well as the MHS My Wave club. It seems to me with such an important message AND the governor in attendance that there should have seen a much higher turn out. The TV press didn't even cover it and news photographers missed the actual signing! MVA did not have a single representative!

Above the lieutenant governor visits with members of My Wave club during one of the breaks.
Following the formal speakers the floor was opened to those wishing to give a personal testimonial about the reef. Lino Olopai is never one to pass on the opportunity to address a crowd and to speak about how things once were. Extremely proud of his Carolinian descent Lino is always quick to point out that in the olden days when only traditional fishing practices were used many of the concepts presented by the experts today follow models his ancestors adhered to many, many years ago. Things such as marine protected areas were known simply as areas you were not aloud to fish because an elder told you so. Things such as not fishing during the July full moon when the coral spawns were respected!

Unfortunately, the reality of today's Saipan is that there are many more mouths to feed and many different cultures trying to live off of the sea. Traditional fishing practices to one group may not be so traditional or have much meaning to others.

After the speakers and before lunch attendees had the opportunity to visit various displays set up around the theater.

DEQ's non-point source pollution model.
Kathy Yuknavage from CRM showing off her new zories and the next event in the line up of activities for IYOR 2008 - Take the Right Route day - March 7th - everyone is encouraged to car pool or use some other form of transportation and in general reduce your carbon foot print for the day.
She was very popular but not as popular as Nate the snake guy! 28-SNAKE. If you see a snake kill it! What's with the terrestrial guy getting all the traffic.

Next time were bringing in a live Whale Shark! We may not have had the same numbers as the snake whisperers but we did have interest in our booth and our group. Below, Joe Kaipat discusses things with Mark James of Underexposed. Mark's the one who did the Marianas Dive year to date slide show and made our booth what it was with all the great photographs!

The truth of the matter is the booth and the display really didn't get high reviews until Rose showed up! Here she is with her three Amigos. Mike, Mark and Dennis.



All in all a great job on getting the word out about this group and our goals to not only improve the dive destination but also to increase the awareness and ultimately the number of people who dive our waters including local kids.

Of course who could forget Mr. Bateman and a couple of hot chicks!