Following a recent meeting between the Office of the Governor and the U.S. Coast Guard, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres coordinated with the Civil Military Liaison Office and the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to address local fishermen concerns regarding the channel buoys and light beacons in the Saipan lagoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasing concerns from commercial, recreational, and local fisherman were brought up to the Governor\u2019s Office regarding buoys, lights,\u00a0and navigational aids. Members\u00a0of the governor\u2019s staff and DLNR were tasked to inspect conditions of these buoys,\u201d said CMLO executive director Stanley T. Iakopo.<\/p>\n
After consultations with local mariners and joint inspection efforts conducted by DLNR and the Office of the Governor, a number of issues regarding buoys and navigational aids were identified.\u00a0\u00a0A light was inoperable on a shipping channel guide buoy while overgrown vegetation obstructed the beacon light on Ma\u00f1agaha Island.\u00a0\u00a0Also, mariners stated that the complete lack of lighting on many of the ship channel buoys made the channel hazardous to transit at night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon completion of its inspection and upon further consultation with Gov. Torres, it was determined that the proper course of action was to bring the issues to the attention of the Coast Guard.\u00a0It is the responsibility of the USCG to maintain the ship channel buoys and navigational aids (such the beacon on Ma\u00f1agaha island) and to review and upgrade those navigational aids where necessary,\u201d Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Anthony T. Benavente said.<\/p>\n
Accordingly, staff from the Office of the Governor met with the local district commander, Capt. Christopher M. Chase, in Guam.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chase was receptive to the concerns of the local mariners and the issue surrounding navigation safety in the channel. The meeting ended with the Chase promising to look into the CNMI\u2019s concerns and correct them as necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaintaining the CNMI\u2019s federal aids to navigation is a primary mission entrusted\u00a0to the Coast Guard. Together with our partners, we are committed to ensuring\u00a0the maritime sector remains secure and the flow of vital commerce to the\u00a0islands continues safely,\u201d Chase said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Recently, Chase visited Saipan and met with Torres, during which Chase stated that, based on the concerns brought to him, the USCG took action; the lights on the buoys were brought back to operating order and the vegetation on Ma\u00f1agaha Island was cleared so that the beacon could once again be clearly spotted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Further, he stated that it was the intent of the USCG to install lights on a number of the channel buoys that are currently bare. It is expected that this upgrade of navigation will occur in the near future.<\/p>\n
Torres noted that the concerns brought by the community were the driving force behind these negotiations with the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank DLNR and the Coast Guard for agreeing to work together on this issue affecting our\u2026fishermen. We are very pleased with the results of the discussions as real action has been done to address these concerns. The collaboration between our partners in the Coast Guard and the military to address our islands\u2019 concerns has been productive, and we look forward to discussions in the future for the benefit of our community.\u201d (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following a recent meeting between the Office of the Governor and the U.S. Coast Guard,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,328,346,719],"class_list":["post-278280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-coast-guard","tag-dlnr","tag-uscg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278280","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}