The Marianas Visitors Authority intends to cooperate with other government agencies to impose diving restrictions at the CNMI\u2019s famous dive site, the Grotto.<\/p>\n
MVA board chair Marian Aldan-Pierce expressed concerns about the number of tourists diving at the Grotto in the evening, when there is no lifeguard and only a security guard is on duty.<\/p>\n
There is one lifeguard stationed at the Grotto in the daytime. A security personnel is on duty only up to 5pm.<\/p>\n
Aldan-Pierce brought the issue up during the MVA regular board meeting last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make our tourist sites more safe, I believe we need to meet with DPS and others regarding this. Do we continue to allow divers to come in at 5pm?\u201d<\/p>\n
MVA board member Jerry Tan agreed with Aldan-Pierce regarding the safety of tourists. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be mindful that some of our tourist markets don\u2019t swim because [they] come from a country that is landlocked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to MVA, the Department of Public Safety has the authority to inform tourists whether it is safe to dive in the Grotto or not during high tide. <\/p>\n
MVA data state that there were 35,000 Grotto visitors in January 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are diving and going into the dangerous area of the Grotto. There is a rope there for safety and some of the people are going beyond the rope, getting cuts from the rocks before getting saved by the lifeguards,\u201d said Aldan-Pierce.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur concern is, is one lifeguard enough? Because we know that it is not, if you have more than 10 people in the water,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
MVA has confirmed that talks with DPS are being planned but shared no specific date.<\/p>\n
Another option MVA has been looking at is to close the Grotto once the security personnel leaves the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we are looking at is actually closing down the Grotto after a certain time for safety reasons,\u201d said Aldan-Pierce.<\/p>\n
MVA would also be looking at closing down Banzai Cliff in the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201dWe used to [close] Banzai, but we have never tried it for the Grotto,\u201d she said. \u201cOur visitors would be advised that this particular tourist site would be closed at a particular time. Whether it is 5pm or whether it is sundown, we are not sure yet.\u201d <\/p>\n
Aldan-Pierce recognized that the Grotto is not only frequented by tourists but also by residents. Because of this, Aldan-Pierce said a public notice would be released if a decision to close the Grotto is made. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marianas Visitors Authority intends to cooperate with other government agencies to impose diving restrictions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1133,35,212,67],"class_list":["post-246373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-banzai-cliff","tag-dps","tag-mva","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246373","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}