What’s at stake in the marine monument proposal

There’s far more at stake in the disagreement between those who support the Marianas Trench monument and those who don’t than the issue of whether federal involvement is good or bad, whether future mining of manganese nodules will provide more revenue than a sea park and a visitors center, whether local fishing will be permitted or not, whether local custom will be ignored or not, whether the respect for land will be honored or not, whether commercial fishing should be allowed or not, whether locals will have a role in its governance or not.

Which is not to say that those are not matters of real concern, worth researching, discussing debating, worth trying to resolve.

However, the fundamental, underlying issue is far more crucial, with far greater implications than such localized concerns. Basically, at the heart of the disagreement is the question of whether our grandchildren, and their grandchildren, will ever see a whale or a tuna or a dolphin or a sea horse or an eel or a porpoise or an anemone or a swordfish or a manta ray or a turtle or a starfish or a conch or an oyster or a salmon—whether they will ever see marine life—except in pictures in a book, in a film, on a video.

The seas, and their marine life are being raped, if you will, destroyed and decimated, by people who are more interested in earning a dollar today than in what happens in the future. Commercial fishing has become so technically efficient that the normal life cycle of marine life is no longer able to replace what’s been taken, and fish stocks are declining worldwide. The “by-catch” (turtles, dolphins, non-target fish) from the use of long-lines, purse seines, drift nets has been equally destructive. Reports from all over the world report on the disappearance of marine species, the smaller size and shrinking numbers of survivors.

In the U.S., commercial fishing is controlled by regional fishery councils who set catch limits, set boundaries, define fishing techniques. In theory, these councils, established under U.S. law, were supposed to “manage” marine life in a sustainable manner, so species did not disappear, fish stock did not diminish. But there have been few, if any, conservationists, among the councils’ members. The councils, backed by major financial interests, are concerned only with maximizing “take”—how many fish can be taken from the sea and sold at a profit, and have managed to form a wealthy, influential lobby.

In the CNMI, the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, one of only a few whose entire membership represents fishing interests (rather than including sport fisheries and conservation interests) is opposed to the designation of the waters surrounding the CNMI’s three northernmost islands as a marine monument because that jeopardizes its control over those waters. WESPAC members have lobbied extensively both here and in Washington against CNMI’s proposed marine monument. Unfortunately, CNMI’s leaders appear to have succumbed to that lobbying and have gone on record objecting to the monument declaration—which does not bode well for positive action from the federal government—unless the President and his advisors can be made to realize just what is happening.

The issue, in other words is whether fishery councils, WESPAC among them, should be allowed to continue their destructive practices of destroying the world’s marine resources, or whether sanctuary-type reserves—as is being proposed for the CNMI—where fish stock and marine life would be able to re-establish healthy populations, should be established.

Letters to the President, to his Council on Environmental Quality and its director, to the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Interior, voicing support for the Marianas Marine Trench Monument, might help.
Some useful addresses:
-President George W. Bush, The White House, 1600 Washington Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20500;

-James Connaughton, chair, Council on Environmental Quality, Council on Environmental Quality, The White House, 1600 Washington Ave, NW, Washington, D.C., 20500 e-mail: Http://www.whitehouse.gov/governmment/connaugton-bio.html or James_L._Connaughton@ceq.eop.gov or comments@whitehouse.gov;

-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20240, e:mail: www.webteam@ios.doi.gov;

-Dr. Gerhard F. Kuska, associate director, Council on Environmental Quality, Director of Ocean and Coastal Policy, Washington, D.C., e-mail: Gerhard_F._Kuska@ceq.eop.gov;

-Carlos M. Gutierrez, Office of the Secretary, Mailstop 61, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20230.