{"id":191312,"date":"2015-02-09T04:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T18:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=191312"},"modified":"2015-02-09T04:00:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T18:00:49","slug":"nmc-seeks-entry-sea-grant-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmc-seeks-entry-sea-grant-program\/","title":{"rendered":"NMC seeks entry into Sea Grant program"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Sea Grant officials met with the Northern Marianas College for the first time late last week, as the CNMI\u2019s only college looks to enter the four-stage process in becoming a designated Sea Grant institution.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>
Northern Marianas College president Dr. Sharon Hart poses for a photo with visiting Sea Grant and other college officials after a meeting last week. (Dennis B. Chan)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The officials visiting were Sea Grant advisory council chair Rolland Schmitten, Virginia Sea Grant director Troy Hartley, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration extension leader Michael Liffman, and NOAA Coral Reef Conservation program management liaison Paulo Maurin.<\/p>\n

In the works right now is a concept paper, or project proposal, to enter the program. The University of Guam, now in stage two or in the \u201ccoherent area program\u201d of the process, began with a project in extension and environmental literacy. The last stages move from \u201cinstitutional program\u201d to \u201cSea Grant College.\u201d<\/p>\n

For NMC\u2019s part, their project will be led by the college\u2019s Cooperative Research Extension and Education services, among other officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be submitting our project proposal. Step one is where we are going next,\u201d college president Sharon Hart said, with a focus on aquaculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important to have these folks out here so they can see and understand what we can bring to the table but also see our challenges and opportunities that lie ahead\u2014I think there are terrific opportunities ahead that can really help the CNMI in the long run through Sea Grant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hart believes it will be a \u201csmooth move\u201d and transition into the Sea Grant process because their extension program has been very involved in aquaculture in years past.<\/p>\n

Right now, the focus is on rabbit fish production, according to NMC aquaculture specialist Michael Ogo who, along with another CREES official, participated in the four-year program review of UOG\u2019s Sea Grant program by the visiting officials last week.<\/p>\n

From sitting in on this review, they learned the \u201cthe importance of listening to stakeholders and listening to the community in coming up with an idea\u201d to get a better understanding of what it takes to become a Sea Grant institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really pleased that they came out here. Our dynamics are a little bit different than some of the states. We are appreciate that they took the time to come out here and appreciate of the environment we are working in, and the context and challenges we are facing here as small Pacific islands,\u201d added acting dean of CREES Patricia Coleman.<\/p>\n

Schmitten said they met with NMC to see the island and discuss opportunities for a Sea Grant status.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we are exploring are the needs of Saipan, and what NMC is doing to address those issues from the standpoint of coastal and marine type resources,\u201d Schmitten said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking primarily about aquaculture related issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Sea Grant programs are based on \u201clocal needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of things we are interested in is the effect of climate change and how communities can adapt to those impending changes, whether it\u2019s impending changes to fisheries, impending changes to coastal resource communities that might be vulnerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to environmental literacy. \u201cIt\u2019s really sad how very little people know about their coastal and marine environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Hartley, the \u201csea grant approach and role\u201d uses the application of science to solve real world problems. \u201cHow you move the best science we have out into the field, into somebody\u2019s hands who\u2019s going to make a decision\u2014and is going to make a better decision\u2014because they have that science,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maurin also pointed to the \u201cstrategic importance of where\u201d the CNMI and Guam sits in the Micronesia region. \u201cIt has the potential to become the hub of a lot of the U.S. activities in the region. There is in some ways a competitive environmental advantage\u2014if you look at the marine environment here, it is in some ways very different from the ones in other parts of Hawaii or American Samoa. Some of the social issues are similar but are still different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives the opportunity to study and address challenges that are very unique in the region and study factors and environments that are not found anywhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Sea Grant officials met with the Northern Marianas College for the first time late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":191314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,69,262,1827],"class_list":["post-191312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-nmc","tag-northern-marianas-college","tag-virginia-sea-grant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}