{"id":398102,"date":"2023-08-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=398102"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"FOMT-withdraws-sanctuary-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/FOMT-withdraws-sanctuary-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"FOMT withdraws sanctuary nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Friends of the Mariana Trench is withdrawing their nomination for a Mariana Trench national marine sanctuary and requesting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration remove the Mariana Trench from the sanctuary inventory.<\/p>\n

Friends board chair Sheila Babauta announced the move in a news release yesterday, saying that many things have changed since the 15 years ago when the Friends of the Mariana Trench first requested a national marine sanctuary designation for the Mariana Trench.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mariana Trench is a national treasure, a great natural wonder of the world that is worthy of pride and protection,\u201d Babauta said. \u201cBut in the 15 years that have passed since the Friends first requested a national marine sanctuary, and the six years since NOAA accepted our nomination, circumstances in our community have changed and we see the need for more dialogue and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have more conversations about how we can work better together with our local and federal government partners to protect our ocean resources and achieve our conservation goals. We are withdrawing our sanctuary nomination for now, to make space for these important conversations,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Friends board member emeritus Ignacio \u201cIke\u201d V. Cabrera noted that the Friends leadership consulted with many stakeholders prior to making their decision to withdraw the sanctuary nomination. \u201cWe had meetings with ocean elders and youth, community members, [Delegate] Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan and Gov. Arnold [I.] Palacios,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithdrawing the sanctuary nomination right now doesn\u2019t close the door on resubmitting a nomination in the future,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we believe that at this time we should focus our efforts on gathering more community input, implementing our ongoing ocean programs, and improving the management of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Friends of the Mariana Trench is a community-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to be guardians of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument and the ocean resources of the Marianas, by empowering communities with ocean conservation strategies and research grounded in traditional teachings. For more information, contact executive director Laurie Peterka at (670) 483-7499 or visit www.friendsmarianatrench.org.<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}The Friends of the Mariana Trench is withdrawing their nomination for a Mariana Trench national marine sanctuary and requesting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration remove the Mariana Trench from the sanctuary inventory,{\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}Friends board chair Sheila Babauta announced the move in a news release yesterday, saying that many things have changed since the 15 years ago when the Friends of the Mariana Trench first requested a national marine sanctuary designation for the Mariana Trench.{\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}\u201cThe Mariana Trench is a national treasure, a great natural wonder of the world that is worthy of pride and protection,\u201d Babauta said. \u201cBut in the 15 years that have passed since the Friends first requested a national marine sanctuary, and the six years since NOAA accepted our nomination, circumstances in our community have changed and we see the need for more dialogue and education. {\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}\u201cWe need to have more conversations about how we can work better together with our local and federal government partners to protect our ocean resources and achieve our conservation goals. We are withdrawing our sanctuary nomination for now, to make space for these important conversations,\u201d she added.{\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}Friends board member emeritus Ignacio V. Cabrera \u201cIke\u201d noted that the Friends leadership consulted with many stakeholders prior to making their decision to withdraw the sanctuary nomination. \u201cWe had meetings with ocean elders and youth, community members, [Delegate] Gregorio Kilili Sablan and Gov. Arnold [I.] Palacios,\u201d he said. {\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}\u201cWithdrawing the sanctuary nomination right now doesn\u2019t close the door on resubmitting a nomination in the future,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we believe that at this time we should focus our efforts on gathering more community input, implementing our ongoing ocean programs, and improving the management of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.\u201d{\/span}<\/p>\n

{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}The Friends of the Mariana Trench is a community-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to be guardians of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument and the ocean resources of the Marianas, by empowering communities with ocean conservation strategies and research grounded in traditional teachings. For more information, contact executive director Laurie Peterka at (670) 483-7499 or visit{\/span} {span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}{span}www.friendsmarianatrench.org{\/span}{\/span}{span lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d xml:lang=\u201dEN-US\u201d}. (PR)<\/strong>{\/span}<\/p>\n


Friends of the Mariana Trench logo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Friends of the Mariana Trench is withdrawing their nomination for a Mariana Trench national…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398102","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}