Bush to OK marine monuments

President George W. Bush was expected last night to designate three new areas in the Pacific as marine national monuments—including the three northernmost islands of the CNMI and the Marianas Trench—in what will be the largest marine conservation effort in history.

The three areas—totaling some 195,274 square miles (505,760 square kilometers)—include the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument (that includes Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands Johnston Atoll and Wake Island); and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in American Samoa.

Each location harbors unique species and some of the rarest geological formations on Earth—from the world’s largest land crab to a bird that incubates its eggs in the heat of underwater volcanoes.

Bush, who has just 13 days to go before turning over the nation’s reins to President-elect Barrack Obama on Jan. 20, will make the designations using his authority under the Antiquities Act, instead of going to the process of marine protected areas that requires U.S. Congress approval.

The move will prohibit commercial fishing and other extractive uses around these areas. However, recreational fishing, tourism and scientific research with a federal permit could still occur inside the three areas. The designations will also not conflict with U.S. military activities or freedom of navigation, White House officials said.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced Bush’s approval of the proposal the day before the President’s actual signing of the designation.

The plan resulted in a slew of articles in Newsday, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York, Times, CNN, BBC, and wire services such as The Associated Press and Agence France Press.

According to transcripts of the briefing, a copy of which was obtained by Saipan Tribune, Connaughton said that Bush’s action will cap off an eight-year comprehensive ocean conservation strategy that involves the “largest areas of ocean or ocean seabed set aside as marine protected areas in the world.”

Fishing rights

Here at home, press secretary Charles Reyes said that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial appreciates the federal government’s respect for indigenous fishing rights. Fitial and most members of the CNMI Legislature have strongly opposed the proposal due to fears that island residents would lose access and rights to the designated areas.

Fitial is in Washington D.C. primarily to attend the swearing in of the CNMI’s first elected Delegate to the U.S. Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan.

\Reyes said that Fitial is working closely with the CNMI Senate President and the House Speaker to address the marine monument concerns and he is dealing directly with Connaughton.

“The Governor is in Washington, DC, right now, and he is meeting directly with Mr. Connaughton to ensure the best possible outcome for the CNMI—one that meets the CNMI’s needs and addresses the CNMI government’s concerns,” Reyes said.
Officers and some members of the Friends of the Monument, the most active supporters of the project, are also expected to join the President during the official declaration.

End of an era

In a statement, the Pew Environment Group, which spearheaded the campaign for the inclusion of the CNMI in the marine monument declaration, lauded Bush for his action even before the announcement came.

It said this historic move protects some of the world’s most unique and biologically significant ocean habitats.

Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the group, said this marks the end of an era in which humans have increasingly understood the need to conserve vanishing wild places on land but failed to comprehend the similar plight of oceans.

“It comes none too soon, “ Reichert said.

Saipan Tribune tried to obtain comments from Public Lands Secretary John DelRosario, Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz, House Speaker Arnold Palacios and Senate President Pete Reyes but all were attending important meetings late in the afternoon.

Connaughton, who visited the CNMI over a month ago to consult with the government and the people, assured that the designation would prevent the destruction of some of the nation’s and the world’s most pristine natural resources that are also enormously rich in biodiversity.

“The conservation action is going to benefit the public and future generations through enhanced science, knowledge and awareness, and just good old-fashioned inspiration, because these places are exceptionally dynamic when it comes to the marine environment,” Connaughton said.

Components

There will be two main components for the CNMI monument: First is the Marianas Trench, the world’s deepest underwater canyon. The monument will only protect the rim of the canyon and its depths. At 36,201 feet (11,035 meters) the canyon is deeper than Mt. Everest is tall, five times the size of the Grand Canyon and several times wider, according to estimates done by scientists.

The second component is the long arch of submerged active volcanoes and hydrothermal vents that run along the entire Marianas Island chain. There are about 21 active volcanoes and thermal vents that run along the island chain. These emit hot thermal gases in the bottom of the sea, as deep as 5,000 feet.

One of these volcanoes, Connaughton noted, is responsible for a sulfur pool, the second one known ever. The only other sulfur pool is on the moon of Jupiter called Io.

“The thermal vents produce heat from the core of the Earth that boils the water to very, very high temperatures, and also makes the water highly acidic. In one place, the water is a pH of one. And yet in this very, very harsh environment, you have thriving, living resources—something we want to learn a lot more about,” Connaguton said.

Another concern was the preservation of the pristine coral reef ecosystems that surrounds the CNMI’s three northernmost islands of Uracas, Maug and Asuncion.

Implementation system

Over the course of the next two years, the federal government will be directing the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior in cooperation with the governments of the CNMI, Guam and American Samoa to develop management plans to come up with strategic implementation.

“This is a huge day for marine conservation. It’s going to set yet another great mark for America as we inspire marine conservation activities all around the world,” Connaugton said.

Reacting to questions whether, the President will scale down the areas, Connaughton said they have crafted a truly massive conservation outcome “and we’ve crafted it in a way that was able to take into account—and in many instances—simply explain away most of the concerns” from NGO, community and citizens of the CNMI.

He conceded that CNMI government officials raised legitimate issues but “I think you’ll find out that when we finally put pen to paper and crafted this large conservation outcome, we did so in a way that those government officials will now—are now very pleased to fully support.”

He said they have taken into account the issues on cultural heritage and have come up with an approach similar to what happened in Hawaii.

The CNMI government, he said, will be sure to pay close attention to the desires of people to engage in indigenous practices in these areas and be sure that those are legitimately undertaken.

“We just needed to work through that until we spelled it out [and] folks are going to wait to agree until we spelled it out.”

Mineral exploration

On the issue of the potential for minerals development and the conservation actions, he said that based on consultation with scientists, the areas where minerals are likely going to be are not the areas that “we are looking to conserve.”

He added that there is no significant potential for recoverable resources in the Marianas Trench.

He said: “Nobody in his right mind is going to go looking for minerals in the middle of a volcano that’s active or in the middle of a thermal vent with a pH of one.”

He said this was a great example where they have done the science and that they were able to actually take an issue off the table because it wasn’t relevant at all.

He said the federal government is interested in protecting the geologic and natural resource features of the seabed in the Marianas Trench, the volcanoes, and amazing amount of marine life in and around them.

On commercial fishing, he said this issue wasn’t really relevant to the resource that the federal government is working to protect.

“Most of these area are not very productive for commercial fishing in any event,” he said.

Regarding monitoring and enforcement in the Marianas, Connaughton said the areas are challenging in itself “so there’s an embedded enforcement of just the difficulty of going there.”

Legacy

Today’s designation means that Bush will have protected more square miles of ocean than any person in history. In 2006 Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an area of 138,000 square miles. At the time, that area was the largest conservation area in the world.

The three areas designated today are larger, and came with some opposition. Northern Mariana Islands government officials and indigenous communities initially objected to the monument designation, citing concerns about sovereignty, fishing and mineral exploration.

Environmentalists were hoping for more. The protected areas will extend 50 nautical miles off the coral reefs and atolls at the three monuments, which will be officially called the Marianas Marine National Monument, Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Advocacy groups were pushing for 200 nautical miles, the full extent of the U.S. exclusive economic zone. Commercial fishing will also still be allowed in the waters over the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest underwater canyon. The monument will only protect the rim of the canyon and its depths.

“Commercial fishing was not relevant to the resource we wanted to protect,” Connaughton said. He also said the science did not support protecting the full 200 nautical miles.

Special places

The move is a boost to the environmental record of a president who has been criticized for not doing enough against air pollution and global warming. He also lifted a moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

It will be up to President-elect Obama to hammer out how the areas will be managed, and to make sure the prohibitions are enforced.

“We and others in the environmental community have been at odds with this administration on lots of things, but if one looks at this one event it is a significant conservation event,” said Pew’s Reichert.

“In a more symbolic level, it sends a message that we have finally arrived at a point where we are beginning to think about the sea in the same way we have thought about the land—that there are special places under threat that need to be protected,” Reichert said.

The protection of the Mariana Trench comes a century after President Theodore Roosevelt first protected the Grand Canyon as a national monument in 1908.

In Pago Pago, American Samoa, the U.S. territory’s Gov. Togiola T.A. Tulafono said Monday that the designation of Rose Atoll as a national monument will attract research scientists. [B][I](With Associated Press)[/I][/B]