(An open letter in 2 parts)
LATE last year, my fellow fishermen and I, along with well over 400 concerned citizens, sent a letter to our leaders regarding a proposal to have designated a small portion of Laulau Bay’s Pantalan Aliman (southwest beach) from which small fishing boats could be launched so that we can catch fish and feed our families in these difficult economic times.
This letter calls to your attention the matter of Chamorro and Carolinian livelihood, the matter of Chamorro and Carolinian adherence to our cultural traditions as stewards of our terrestrial and marine environments.
We hope that by the letter’s end, you would support our efforts to ensure the survival of our cultural traditions and the survival of our family structure, which is after all, the very foundation of our island identity.
We have since additionally consulted with representatives from the CNMI Coastal Resource Management Office, the CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife, as well as with the Division of Historic Preservation to discuss issues of potential impact to the shoreline and marine resources and how best to mitigate such potentialities.
At this stage of the consultation process, we invite you, the concerned public, to consider the merits of this proposal.
A forum for public input will be scheduled at a later date and it will be at this appointed time that you can provide your comments on the proposed designation of a small boat launch site within Laulau Bay.
As we all recognize, we today face harsh economic realities. Many of us are earning well below $20,000 per annum and therefore continually seek other viable means through which we can provide for our families.
As is the tradition of island peoples, we look to the ocean and its resources for our survival. However, our economic standing dictates the degree and type of access that we can have to these marine resources. Those of us that are fishermen either utilize the lagua’n yot´ti (talaya), spears, slings, and/or small boats to catch the fish that will feed our families. The traditional fishing knowledge that has been passed down to us from our ancestors is additionally quite complex. The seasonal occurrence of certain species of reef, pelagic, and/or deepwater fish requires particular methods of fishing. Yet again, those of us with restricted means of fishing cannot readily access each variety of fish at their respective time of occurrence, which brings us to the matter at hand.
A good number of us fish within Laulau Bay as our ancestors did in millennia past. During those portions of the year wherein the reef species have temporarily regressed, and the use of underwater spears and slings or the hook and line from the shore, cliff, or reef edge is not conducive to a bountiful catch, our alternative is to go after pelagic and/or bottom fish via the use of small boats. The obstacle we face with this approach is the prohibited act of launching small fishing boats from any sector of beach throughout Laulau Bay.
Boating Safety officials tell us that based on the stipulations of Public Laws 3-47 and 2-5, the only way that we can legally fish at Laulau using small boats is for us to physically carry our boats from where we park our cars inland out to the water or detach our trailers from the parked vehicles and push the trailers with the boats across the beach and into the water in order to launch them. Another option that Boating Safety officials have suggested is for us to put out from Sugar Dock on the island’s west end.
Now, on average, the small boats being used are no bigger than 12 to 14 feet in length and they are propelled by outboard motors running from eight to 25 horsepower capacities.
With the launch from Sugar Dock comes a tremendous safety issue. In order to reach Laulau, we have to travel through Agingan and Obyan Points. The waters in these areas are treacherous, even on a calm day, for a 12-foot vessel running an eight horsepower outboard motor. Many of us brave the circumstance of danger however, so that we can provide for our families.
Then there is the economic element. If and when we launch from Sugar Dock, we lose fuel getting to Laulau that could otherwise be utilized for a longer period of fishing had we launched directly from an area of Laulau Beach.
Historically, Laulau Bay and its inland areas were the site of a large ancient Chamorro village. This part of Saipan today is as vital to those of us descended from our ancestors as it was for them. It is also vital to those that are not indigenous, but who now call Saipan their home and who also must find ways to feed their families. Yet we are all being precluded from accessing our marine resources for basic subsistence purposes because of rules and regulations that should be re-assessed for their applicability and more importantly, their practicality.
There is more consistent damage to the marine ecosystem elicited by the diving industry on a daily basis than there would be by fishermen launching their small boats from a designated area. The divers do not follow a specific path between the point of entry in the water to the location of their dive, but rather, walk over coral, sand, and rocks indiscriminately to and from a dive.
Although we have been educated to accept that female sea turtles (Green Sea Turtle and the Hawksbill Turtle in the case of the CNMI) return to their natal beaches to nest, scientists believe that this is the norm and therefore qualify this belief in scientific reports when they indicate that this is “typically” the case when discussing the reproductive cycle of sea turtles. Additionally, it is further documented that sea turtles nest at night. Green Sea Turtles and the Hawksbill Turtles will refrain from approaching their natal grounds when the presence of light is detected within the nesting grounds. Turtles will shy away from threatening areas that exhibit a high degree of human presence. Laulau today is as prone to high levels of human activity as it was during the pre-Latte and Latte periods combined. The human threat to sea turtles was evident then and despite the fact that Saipan was almost devoid of its indigenous population between 1730 A.D. and 1815 A.D., the resurgence of human activity throughout the German, Japanese, WWII and post-WWII periods would undoubtedly have impacted the use of the more accessible sectors of Laulau Beach as nesting grounds.
So what does this suggest? It suggests that the need to re-assess aspects of our Fish and Wildlife conservation laws and Coastal Resource Management laws is tantamount to exercising practical conservation and resource management methods wherein both wildlife and human beings co-exist without one eliminating the other.
The basic human desire to survive will not, on a logical plane, compromise, to the point of extinction, those basic elements upon which it is most dependent. It also points out the major fact that an indiscriminant acceptance of the applicability of federal statutes, rules, and regulations is annihilating the Chamorro and Carolinian cultural heritage of the CNMI.
Yes, it is imperative that we protect and conserve/preserve our natural resources, but let us do so responsibly.
Where are the facts and figures that demonstrate that Laulau Beach is a high incidence sea turtle nesting ground?
If it is such, then why are divers and their vehicles continually allowed, on a daily basis, to impact the east end beach (Unai Bapot/As Bodik) and high ground sand (where science has shown to be the place where female sea turtles deposit their clutch of eggs several times during the nesting season)?
If, by law, the resources within the extent of Laulau Bay cannot be impacted, why is the diving activity at the east end an exception?
Furthermore, a marine life sanctuary has been established in and around Forbidden Island, but the fish that are allowed to be caught outside of the designated “no take” zone are largely accessed by those fishermen with greater fishing capacities (coming in from Sugar Dock and/or Smiling Cove).
This leaves those fishermen with limited or restricted capacities at a disadvantage because current statutory provisions prohibit them from participating in this access to available open water marine resources (i.e. launching from Laulau Beach).
These are but a few key points that must be considered and addressed during eventual discussions regarding the proposed designation issue.
The designation of any part of Laulau Beach as a launch site for small fishing boats will undoubtedly have some kind of an impact on the marine and shoreline ecosystem, but at the same time, it should be considered a positive mitigation measure to any current and future adverse effects because it would relegate the impact to one area. The area in question is the southwest end beach.
(Tomorrow: Why this part of Laulau Beach is a more appropriate launch site)

HERMAN C. TUDELA
Traditional fisherman
and group spokesman