In a letter to Speaker Arnold I. Palacios and Senate President Pete P. Reyes, the governor said pending legislation, H.R. 934, about the CNMI’s right to control up to three miles of its submerged lands may be used to amend the Marianas Monument law.
“As you know, we worked very hard to negotiate significant concessions and modifications to the original marine monument proposal for the CNMI. We jointly consulted our constituents and collaborated in a series of negotiations with former Council for Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton of the Bush Administration to achieve a proclamation that better respects the needs and desires of our local community,” the governor wrote to Palacios and Reyes.
“I urge you to join me in upholding the agreement we reached with the Bush administration,” he added.
Then-President Bush signed a proclamation on Jan. 6, 2009 designating the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.
The marine sanctuary covers 95,000 square miles — the whole Marianas Trench, the 21 underwater volcanoes within the CNMI, and the waters around the northernmost uninhabited islands of Maug, Asuncion and Uracas where about 300 species of stony corals and other precious marine resources are aimed to be preserved.
The nonprofit group Friends of the Monument with the help of the Pew Charitable Trusts campaigned for the marine monument proposal and described it as an opportunity for the CNMI to be known globally.
But these groups are now saying that current provisions about certain fishing and other activities within the monument are weak and therefore should be strengthened.
They also want the Office of the National Marine Sanctuaries of the U.S. Department of Commerce to take responsibility in administering the monument instead of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Fitial said the groups’ proposed amendments are counterproductive.
“These concessions were [and are] very important to the commonwealth and persuaded us to support the creation of this monument,” he said.
