Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, who is in Washington, D.C., is set to meet with the chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, to discuss the CNMI government’s concerns regarding the marine monument.
“Governor Fitial appreciates the federal government’s respect for the indigenous fishing rights,” Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. told Variety yesterday.
He added, “Governor Fitial is working closely with the Senate President and the House Speaker to address the CNMI’s monument concerns directly with…Connaughton. The governor…is meeting directly with Mr. Connaughton to ensure the best possible outcome for the CNMI — one that meets the CNMI’s needs and addresses the CNMI government’s concerns.”
CNMI’s elected officials have expressed opposition to the monument proposal.
World’s biggest
According to the transcript of Connaughton’s briefing with the media in Washington, D.C., one of the marine monument’s main components will be “the Marianas Trench and the long arch of submerged active volcanoes and hydrothermal vents that run along the entire Mariana Islands chain.”
He said the Marianas Trench contains the deepest places on earth. The trench in its deepest point is deeper than Mount Everest is high, and it’s more than 1,500 miles long and 44 miles wide. So to compare that, it’s about five times longer than the Grand Canyon and several times wider.”
The 21 active volcanoes, or seamounts, located within the CNMI will also be protected.
Connaughton said one of the volcanoes found near Rota emits sulfur pool which he described as a “phenomenon.”
“Just to give you an example, one of the volcanoes is responsible for a sulfur pool, which is a phenomenon. The next place that occurs that we know of is on the moon of Io off of Jupiter. The thermal vents produce heat from the core of the earth, produce heat that boils the water to very, very high temperatures, and also makes the water highly acidic. In one place, the water is a pH of one. And yet in this very, very harsh environment, you have thriving, living resources — something we want to learn a lot more about,” he said.
More than 300 species of stony corals and other marine resources are envisioned to be protected with the designation of the marine monument.
Also to be designated as protected area is the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument in the central Pacific Ocean.
Connaughton said this monument will include the pristine coral reef ecosystems that surround the following federal areas: Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands, Johnston Atoll and Wake Island.
“These areas are home to a very large number of nesting seabirds — millions of seabirds — and migratory shorebirds. They contain pristine corals with hundreds of different fish species and an unusually large abundance of what are called apex predators, things like sharks. They’re also home to endangered turtles, and at Johnston in particular, intersects with the marine community that’s up in the northwest Hawaiian Islands which the President established as a national monument two years ago. So there’s a linkage,” he said.
The Rose Atoll Marine National Monument will be established within American Samoa.
This monument is a tiny coral reef area renowned for the pink hue of its fringing reef that’s caused by coralline algae, said Connaughton.
All three protected marine areas measures 195,000 square miles — the biggest in the world.
