{"id":345749,"date":"2021-06-10T06:06:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T20:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=345749"},"modified":"2021-06-10T06:06:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T20:06:16","slug":"building-the-cnmis-future-ocean-conservationists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/building-the-cnmis-future-ocean-conservationists\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the CNMI\u2019s future ocean conservationists"},"content":{"rendered":"
ChaCHa Ocean View Middle School student Anastacia Minor dissecting a sea urchin as Project HOPE ocean elders Chailang Palacios and Frances Sablan look on. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While waiting for her group to begin painting the pole in front of Guma Sakman in Susupe, Anastacia Minor started sharing her insights on nature and its interconnectedness, the importance of taking care of our environment, and on what she thinks officials should do to ensure that even generations after her would have a place to call home. <\/p>\n

Minor, from ChaCha Ocean View Middle School, is one of the 12 students participating in this year\u2019s Project HOPE (Healthy Oceans and People Empowerment) a no-cost ocean science program of the Friends of the Mariana Trench, aimed at cultivating 30 new indigenous ocean\/marine scientists by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you take away one thing, you\u2019re not just taking away something, you\u2019re taking away the whole. The whole thing is going to fall apart like a puzzle. That\u2019s why it\u2019s really important to keep [our environment] clean, to help it so it can grow more, so that the next generation can also expand, travel, and tell people about how [home] is like,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Minor particularly stressed how important it is to take care of the ocean given its \u201ctrauma\u201d from ships and oil spills, and from people throwing trash. She appealed to officials to \u201cwork on people who are not taking care\u201d of the environment, those who are harming home. <\/p>\n

David Benavente of the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance shows the student participants of Project HOPE how to dissect a sea urchin last Monday, June 7, at Guma Sakman in Susupe. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShow them what they\u2019re doing to our environment because if they don\u2019t, they\u2019re just [going to] keep going and going. The environment, it\u2019s getting destroyed all over by the people who are not taking care of our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune went to observe Project HOPE\u2019s session last Monday, June 7, where Minor with other students, were learning about sea urchins from David Benavente of the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance. At the session, ocean elder Frances Sablan also shared her knowledge on how sea urchins were traditionally used for chunking by the islands\u2019 fishermen. <\/p>\n

Project HOPE marries scientific with cultural knowledge, through experiential learning, where students get to know about the oceans, climate change, coral reef life, marine protected areas, mangrove trees, currents and tides, among many others.<\/p>\n

Our ocean is threatened<\/strong>
\nTo spread awareness on ocean conservation, the students helped paint two Project Haligi poles nearest Guma Sakman, under the guidance of Project HOPE\u2019s interns, who are members of the Northern Marianas College\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Organization. <\/p>\n

One pole was painted with endangered\/threatened ocean species in the CNMI, and the other, painted with food fishes on island. Tina Marie Kaneshi, also a student of ChaCha Ocean View, got assigned to paint the latter. <\/p>\n

Student cleaning off a sea urchin dissected during a Project HOPE presentation from the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance. 9Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kaneshi shared with Saipan Tribune her frustrations whenever she would see other children littering in the ocean. \u201cHow many times I\u2019ve seen a kid litter in the ocean and just leave their trash there. It disgusts me. You should pick up your trash. It sucks to just see all the candy wrappers and favors from fiestas in there. They just leave the trash in there and I hate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment and the ocean\u2026 it\u2019s an important thing. It supports most life here, supports the economy as well. Its health has been declining more and more, and if it just keeps declining, it\u2019s going to die out and all that past knowledge, all that\u2019s in there \u2013 all the fish, all the jobs that are about the ocean, it\u2019s going to go down,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

Rochelle Ramon, one of Project HOPE\u2019s interns, spearheaded the painting project so the students can help spread ocean conservation awareness, stressing the importance of the ocean to the community, in terms of coastal protection, food, even to the oxygen that we all breathe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe focus on ocean conservation. It is an important project we can move forward with, especially with the kids, just to have them learn more and become more ocean conservative too, right now and in the future, as they\u2019re our future generations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018The best of both worlds\u2019<\/strong>
\nThrough Project HOPE, the students get scientific information from environmental experts, and life and cultural knowledge from ocean elders. <\/p>\n

Project HOPE student participants paint endangered\/threatened ocean species on a Project Haligi pole near Guma Sakman in Susupe to increase ocean conservation awareness in the community. (Iva Maurin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For ocean elder Frances Sablan, the youth get the best of both worlds through Project HOPE. The students do not just know about the theories and the scientific, but they also get to know the culture, which makes ocean learning more relatable and relevant to them and their lives. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t impart to them the knowledge and the values, then they will not protect [our environment], they won\u2019t conserve, they will just treat it as if it is unimportant. So, by teaching them, hopefully they would realize the value, and why they need to be the protectors and the conservationists,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can relate back when I was their age, by going out and helping clean the environment, by collecting bottles or trash along the road, it made me a firm believer that I need to help clean my environment. And I get upset with anyone who trashes it because I experienced a hardship.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sablan added that this is the kind of sentiment that she wants to pass on to the youth, to have them realize that by being participatory on how to take care of and be stewards of the land and the ocean, that they really would be active participants, and active movers and shakers. <\/p>\n

Hopwood Middle School\u2019s Jose Iguel, also a Project HOPE participant, echoes this. For Iguel, what the P<\/p>\n

roject is doing is important, stating that \u201cif you learn when you\u2019re young, when you get older, that information becomes useful.\u201d <\/p>\n

What is being learned by the students through Project HOPE could also prove useful to everyone else in the community, and for Sablan, this is particularly true to those who trash, do negative things, and have a carefree attitude on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to also join in,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cThey also need to be part of the process, because they\u2019re the ones that really need to take home the knowledge and the wisdom, and the values. It is important… There is hope. There\u2019s a lot of factors that will pull us down in the environment but with this [Project HOPE], and with others that also support the idea and concept, there is [hope].\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about Project HOPE, and other programs of the Friends of the Mariana Trench, call (670) 483-FOMT (3668), or email info@friendsmarianatrench.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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