NMC OK’d to build marine, mariculture center

The Northern Marianas College has been granted its request to use an abandoned 2,000 square foot government building and its surrounding properties at Pau Pau Beach, where it plans to build a new Marine/Environmental Sciences and Mariculture Demonstration Center.

In a unanimous decision, the board of directors of the Marianas Public Land Authority approved NMC’s request during its Jan. 26 meeting.

The goals of the proposed center are to increase awareness and appreciation of the CNMI’s marine and environmental resources and to promote utilization of cultured marine life as a viable alternative to wild resource collection.

Both NMC’s Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Services and the Science, Mathematics, and Technology Department are working to move forward the facility through all necessary government permissions and permitting phases in building the center. The project leader for CREES is Interim Director Anthony Benavente, supported by other CREES staff members. The project lead for the Science Department is John Furey. Furey is also credited by college administrators as the main advocate and lead person in the development of this project.

The objectives of this planned facility are to support education efforts for NMC’s Marine Sciences & Technology and Natural Resource Management degree and certificate programs and to use the nearby grounds to demonstrate regionally-applied mariculture techniques.

The CNMI Department of Public Works is currently developing Architectural and Engineering plans for the center. The NMC Small Business Development Center and the NMC Business Department are helping further develop a draft nonprofit business plan for the facility. NMC art instructor Barry Wonenberg developed a highly detailed conceptual drawing that has helped everyone involved with the project better understand the overall intentions of the site’s development.

The CNMI is the only U.S. ocean-fronting jurisdiction that lacks an operational marine research laboratory. Mariculture demonstration facilities currently exist throughout the tropical North Pacific, including Palau, Guam, Kosrae, and the Marshall Islands, and throughout the tropical South Pacific, including Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, and New Caledonia.

The University of Hawaii maintains several marine laboratory and mariculture facilities both on Oahu and on the Island of Hawaii, including the very popular Waikiki Aquarium.

After a five-year evaluation process, the Pau Pau site was selected by an interagency technical and scientific group composed of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Coastal Resources Management, Division of Environmental Quality, and the two college programs’ professionals. They said the site is ideally suited for this designated use.

NMC made a brief presentation to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, encouraging the allocation of Coral Reef Initiative funds and other programmatic support mechanisms to help make the site’s development a reality. After coordinating with the CNMI Parks and Recreation Division and the PSS Head Start Program, NMC officially requested MPLA for its permission to develop and use the property and building.

Initial funding for the first phase of the site’s development will be financed by both a start-up grant of $70,000 from the U.S. Department of Education allocated to the NMC Science program, and by a local government appropriation of $30,000, allocated to CREES. Staff and equipment resources will be moved to the center by both programs to help make it operational.

Private donations will be extensively solicited to help match and exceed these initial federal and local funds in order to make the facility—if not at par with—at least within the same ballpark as other marine/environmental research and demonstration locations in the immediate region. These include the University of Guam’s Marine Laboratory and Water and Environmental Research Institute, the Palau International Coral Reef Center, and the Palau Mariculture Demonstration Center.

Donations towards the development of the new center will be coordinated through the NMC President’s Office. Under the Educational Tax Credit program, each CNMI business can donate up to $5,000 per year and have these donations directly applied as a dollar for dollar deduction for CNMI tax purposes. Larger donations will also be solicited and accepted.

In particular, efforts will be made to solicit support from tourism, fishing, farming, marine sports, and other industries that utilize the CNMI’s marine environment, one of the CNMI’s most significant and most fragile natural resource. A plaque wall is planned for the center to recognize all major contributors. NMC will reserve all ETC donations toward the center in a special fund account to be used solely for furthering the center’s infrastructure development and operational needs.