DFW: Safety of tourists should be paramount

The Division of Fish and Wildlife has already collected almost $50,000 since it started collecting a $3 per passenger loading fee at the Smiling Cove Marina transient dock last Oct. 11.

DFW director Manny M. Pangelinan said that their operations at the Smiling Cove Marina have been running smoothly despite some operators opting to bring tourists to Managaha Island through the Garapan Fishing Base and the Commonwealth Ports Authority pier.

“I hope everybody cooperates so we can focus cumulatively,” Pangelinan said. “We are concerned on how we can expand their [Marine Sports Association] place to do business, and the way we can expand that is to support the [entity] that is going to do the business right to provide for them.”

He said the improvements to the transient dock would benefit not just the public, but the operators, and that the more they cooperate and support the passenger fee collection, the faster it would be for the DFW to work on the improvements.

The passenger fee will be used to maintain and operate the transient dock within the Smiling Cove Marina, which will be used to load and unload passengers, in lieu of the Outer Cove Marina, which has been closed for being unsafe for public use.

“If they all say we need the channel dredged because it is not that deep, it takes money to dredge it. If they cooperate and they start supporting this activity, the faster I can go and hire a contractor to dredge it. If they say they need an additional slip, and they all contribute, then the faster we can do that,” he said.

Some operators have been bringing their clients for loading to go to Managaha to the Garapan Fishing Base or at the Commonwealth Ports Authority dock, circumventing the need to pay the $3 passenger loading fee.

“Right now, we have about 200 customers a day average. If we get the others and get up to 500, that is even better,” Pangelinan said.

The first priority of the fee collection is to pay for the dock, and once it has been paid, rehabilitation would be started. “We have to pay the dock because the federal government pays for it. That dock was built for purposes of transient vessel coming from off-island to use.”

However, when Typhoon Soudelor hit Saipan in 2015, the area was opened to boat owners who got displaced, at the request of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, who was then lieutenant governor, to assist them so they would have a place to park and to load and offload passengers.

“Since then up to now, they were getting a lot of freebies. When we said I’m gonna charge you, those that are everyday users of the dock ran away,” he said.

Pangelinan also raised concerns about the impression and image that the CNMI would have when they get loaded at the Garapan Fishing Base, where there are no facilities.

“When tourists come here and they [operators] bring them to [the fishing base], what would be their first impression about our marine sports activity? Perception is important. We are marketing Saipan as a tourist destination.

“Tourists come, they [will go] to CPA and it happens to be low tide. They have to go down this steep [incline]. What [would be] their impression? That our dock is unsafe. That 200 group of tourists, [when] they start talking, can make an impact to others.”

Pangelinan stressed that the issue must be addressed as it is not about the money, but about perception and safety.

“We closed our marina for safety reasons, yet we allow that to happen there and at the fishing base, which is still an issue of safety. We’re not really addressing safety by allowing that to happen.”