By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE Northern Marianas continues to implement plans for coral reef protection as it marks the third year of carrying out local action strategies, according to one of the CNMI environmental agencies involved.
The CNMI possesses at least 268 species of coral, which is five times more than Hawaii.
Coral reef point of contact Fran Castro of the Division of Environmental Quality said DEQ, Coastal Resource Management and the Division of Fish and Wildlife are the agencies that are implementing the mission set by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force created nine years ago by President Bill Clinton through an executive order.
The mission is to “lead, coordinate and strengthen U.S. government actions to better preserve and protect coral reef ecosystems.”
The task force in 2002 adopted a resolution requiring each jurisdiction to develop a set of local action strategies.
The CNMI’s local action strategies, Castro said, address five main threats to coral reefs — land-based sources of pollution, use and misuse, lack of public awareness, lack of fisheries management, and lack of training and capacity in coral reef resource management.
Castro said they are now in the third year of applying the action strategies “and we will be developing new plans in the near future.”
DEQ marine biologists who have been conducting research on coral reefs every two years are scheduled to undertake another this month.
They discovered at least three new coral species in 2005.
The projects, according to Castro, are funded primarily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs through a yearly coral reef management grant which she herself coordinates with other agencies involved in the coral reef initiative program which is now overseen by the office of Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez.
The federally funded monitoring grant which is also federally funded is coordinated by CRM’s marine biologist.
To date, the coral reef initiative has carried out many projects.
Some of them are the implementation of fishing forums, the development of a fishing regulations brochure, workshops for education and research, initiating an inshore survey of the Saipan lagoon, completion of engineering designs at Laulau Bay and Obyan, and the funding of watershed restoration on Rota.