Salas: ‘Opportunity knocks’ with Pew monument

The Pew Charitable Trust’s bid to establish a national marine monument in the Northern Marianas Islands is an “opportunity” that could bolster the Commonwealth’s economy through a boost in tourism, said former Guam senator John Salas in a forum on the plan Tuesday.

“When opportunity knocks, jump,” Salas said during the forum, held at a Rotary Club meeting in the Hyatt Regency Saipan. “You either want it or you don’t. And are we at the point here in these islands where we can ignore it?”

The Pew Trust’s proposal—an attempt to capitalize on President Bush’s so-called “Blue Legacy” of ocean preservation before the end of his term—has drawn opposition from some locals and government officials, including Gov. Benigno Fitial, who say it will block any future fishing or mining activities in the 115,000 square miles of the proposed area.

Yet proponents of the plan are hoping to rally support for it with a recently unveiled economic analysis that suggests the monument could create new jobs and garner millions of tourism dollars for the Commonwealth each year.

“The islands here survive on tourism and there’s all this desire to get more tourists,” Salas said. “You want a resource here that can be used and can be used very effectively to sell passages for both local and international tourists.”

On the key issue of whether the proposed monument will bar economic activity, Salas noted the three uninhabited islands within the monument’s proposed boundaries are already a protected area.

“If they were federalized, they would be the same tomorrow as they are today,” he said. “The federal government does not intend to come in and take over those islands. It’s simply saying that those three northern islands are surrounded by waters that are, by law, under the purview of the United States government and they want to be able to isolate the usage of them. But they aren’t in use now. Are they?”

And the potential benefits to the Commonwealth outweigh its costs by 10 to 1, according to the Pew-funded analysis, authored by Dr. Thomas Iverson, a University of Guam economist.

Iverson’s analysis, presented at the meeting, estimates the monument will attract $10 million in spending to the Commonwealth each year with annual costs of about $1 million.

“I just don’t see a lot of cost to doing it,” Iverson said. “It’s an opportunity that most places would go after.”

A finalized version of the Dr. Iverson’s report will be available in two weeks, he added.

Iverson and Salas appeared to strike a chord with some members of the audience. Rotary Club member David Sablan said that despite recent local controversies over immigration and the federal minimum wage increase, the Commonwealth might not always want to shy away from federal initiatives.

“Somehow, we get the perception here that the word ‘federalization’ is a bad word,” Sablan said. “And I think that has to change.”