‘A rising tide floats all boats’

“A rising tide floats all boats,” said Dr. Austin Shelton, director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability, in response to the question whether they support the Northern Marianas College’s bid for Sea Grant status after a preliminary meeting with the National Sea Grant Association members and NMC’s leadership team last Friday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.

If approved, NMC will be funded in part by the $709,000 that UOG received from the National Sea Grant College Program.

This grant will help NMC support local initiatives and priorities developed within the islands toward conserving and protecting its precious natural resources, and to promote the efficient use of human, institutional, and financial resources to meet local and regional goals and objectives.

Shelton said, “We’re in a position now that we get to share… We would like to help the Northern Marianas College hire their first Green Growth coordinator so that they can do something similar to us—and that was: Create a Green Growth Initiative, which is a sustainable development plan for the entire island…”

“If we can help and assist in any way that we can further to that, in creating implementation projects such as a conservation corps; a circular economy makerspace and innovation hub; more community gardens around the islands; or aquaponics, we’re here to support and work with our friends here at the Northern Marianas College and throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,” he said.

Dr. Darren Lerner, director for the University of Hawai’i Sea Grant Program and Sea Grant Association president, said about the potential Sea Grant status for NMC, “The opportunity to expand our Sea Grant Program to the Northern Marianas college and to others across the Pacific, from the point of view of the University of Hawaii only serves to make us even better over time as we continue to grow and continue to try to meet the needs of communities.”

Dr. Jonathan Pennock, director for the National Sea Grant Office, for his part said, “We’re excited to explore that… I think the Northern Marianas College has shown that they are doing sea grants even though there’s not that formal relationship as Darren and Austin have said. The partnerships have been growing and we’re very, very much looking forward to continuing that beyond the monies that were just announced that comes through the National Sea Grant College Program through the Department of State, and we’re looking forward to moving forward.”

He said the next steps are to make a decision as to the mechanism by which an application can formally come through. Beyond that, he said, is reviewing the application, making sure that NMC is doing research, extension, and education; and then finally, granting the status.

Last March, NMC president Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero attended the 2023 Spring Sea Grant Association meeting in Washington D.C., and helped move NMC’s bid to become a Sea Grant institution closer to fruition by networking with other Sea Grant institutions, developing partnerships for research and environmental stewardship, and officially submitting the college’s formal letter of intent to become a Sea Grant institution to Pennock and Lerner.

Deleon Guerrero said “It’s been a great week of networking and learning more about the great programs that are taking place across the country. We have 34 grant programs from across the country represented. Most of them are here on Saipan and we intend to show them a lot of the Sea Grant related projects that we’re doing.”

After the meeting, the group visited and went on a tour of Mañagaha Island.

Sea Grant is a federal-university partnership program that brings science together with communities for solutions that work.

The Sea Grant network consists of a federal/university partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 34 university-based programs in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

The network draws on the expertise of more than 3,000 scientists, engineers, public outreach experts, educators and students to help citizens better understand, conserve and utilize America’s coastal resources.