{"id":278513,"date":"2018-06-20T06:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T20:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=278513"},"modified":"2018-06-20T06:06:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T20:06:58","slug":"our-sanctuaries-are-being-raped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/our-sanctuaries-are-being-raped\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our sanctuaries are being raped\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kelly Tenorio, left, and Adriana Cotero share their experiences during their trip to the Northern Islands last April during the Rotary Club of Saipan weekly meeting yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan. (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eyewitnesses have made allegations that the sanctuaries within the Marianas archipelago have been trespassed and tampered with, illegally. <\/p>\n

The three northernmost islands in the Marianas archipelago\u2014Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Maug, and Asuncion\u2014were all included in the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument that was established by President George Bush on Jan. 6, 2009. The monument\u2019s intent was to ensure protection of over 95,000 square miles of seafloor and waters in the Mariana Archipelago. <\/p>\n

The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries was mandated and promised to conduct educational and research programs, as well as resource protection, but they allegedly have not. <\/p>\n

During the Rotary Club of Saipan\u2019s weekly meeting yesterday at the Hyatt Regency\u2019s Giovanni\u2019s restaurant, Kelly Tenorio, Northern Islands Mayor\u2019s Office coordinator and Northern Islands resident, informed Rotarians about the happenings that Northern Islanders have spotted in the so- called \u201cprotected sanctuaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPromises were made when they made that monument, when they took it away\u2026I don\u2019t know exactly who the monument people are, but there were a lot of promises made that they would keep those islands safe and patrolled and I cant say that we\u2019ve ever seen that and we really need it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Tenorio said that not only have Northern Islanders spotted ships, but they have also uncovered large net remnants in the sanctuary waters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the monument areas which is the end of the [Mariana] chain\u2026there are ships passing all the time and we find nets in the water that they just cut off sometimes when their nets are all tangled, they just cut them off \u2026but ships come out there all the time and I know the Coast Guard knows this and they do all they can to help us with that but it is such a big space,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

According to Tenorio, Northern Island sanctuaries are constantly being raped and it should be a concern of all those within the Mariana archipelago. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019m not blaming anybody, I\u2019m just saying that it is everybody\u2019s job to patrol our islands and to keep them safe because they are being raped as we speak and we are concerned about it\u2026these islands belong to everybody and we all have to be stewards so I would like them to know that they can contact our office,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

In addition, Tenorio said that ships from Guam have been making trips to the Northern Islands, too, which is a huge concern because these ships could carry invasive species that could attack the purity of the Northern Islands. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fine, we want to share the islands, but we want to make sure that the boats coming in are free of invasive species. As you know the rhino beetles and many other things that we don\u2019t want getting up there\u2026we have a process here that they have to check in with us first. Not just the Northern Islands Mayor\u2019s Office, but Division of Fish and Wildlife and all that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Tenorio said that she would just like to inform Northern Island visitors that they are welcome up there, but they need to check with the Northern Islands Mayor\u2019s Office first to ensure that the boats that are coming in are safe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eyewitnesses have made allegations that the sanctuaries within the Marianas archipelago have been trespassed and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":278514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[19778,15741,2512,261],"class_list":["post-278513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-national-marine-sanctuaries","tag-northern-islanders","tag-northern-islands-mayor","tag-rotary-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278513","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}