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.

Right Route Day and a Birthday!

April 11th is a special day in the CNMI - It's my wife's birthday.
Now I've just got to figure out how I can get into town to buy her a last minute gift while reducing my carbon foot print!

Today is also Take the Right Route Day! To help celebrate the International Year of the Reef (IYOR) the folks at CRM put together a campaign designed to raise awareness about our own individual contributions to global warming. In this case, by asking people to find alternate, more efficient ways to get around the island they hope to show that each of us can make decisions each and everyday that will help combat this issue.
Of course finding alternate means to get from Dandan to Garapan and other parts of the island for errands can be a bit difficult considering there is no public transportation on the island. Then there is the issue of knowing I will likely have to go to a number of different places scattered around the island to get what I need because there is really no "one stop" shopping area. Perhaps I could ride my bike but that only looks fun at the top of the hill by the college and not so fun from the bottom coming back up!
Perhaps I can ask these kids for a lift. Now If you think this photo of very young kids riding an ATV without helmets is just a gig for an ad, think again. This scenario is played out everyday up and down the street in front of my house. If I have one complaint about this campaign it is this ad. I'm waiting for the day when one of the kids in our neighbourhood is pronounced dead at CHC. You would never see this in Canada these days. Twenty years ago perhaps but not now. There has been too much education about head injuries so these days it's now basically considered neglect to let your child ride a bike without a helmet. Come to think about it there are no road side vendors selling fireworks to young kids either!

Anyway, I digress. For all of those who take an alternate way to work today you can receive your own pair of zories from CRM, call 664-8311 for more info.
Don't Drive it Walk it!

"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!