The Submarine “Deepstar” is owned by Pacific Subsea Saipan Inc. and is designed to allow tourists to explore the beauty of the exotic underwater seascape in air conditioned-dry comfort.
The Sub Deepstar dives to a depth of 100 ft. with audio narration and music playing during the entire tour.
Students got to see colorful tropical fishes, beautiful corals and a wide variety of marine life.
The tour included visiting World War II historical artifacts, airplane and shipwreck sites.
Said Bryan Jones, the student’s instructor, “The dive beneath the sea provided a wonderful educational opportunity for the students to better understand the world in which they live. Residents of the CNMI have always been closely linked to the ocean but the opportunity to spend time in underwater exploration is unique.
“The interest of the students in the Mariana Trench was triggered during a classroom presentation by Angelo Villagomez on the proposal to create a very large marine reserve in Northern CNMI waters.
“It’s not often that our students have an opportunity to become involved in an issue with national and global significance,” said Jones.
In recent weeks, the proposal for a Mariana Trench Marine Monument has been mentioned in newspapers around the world.
The proposal has generated considerable discussion in the CNMI and in Washington, D.C. during and following a visit to Saipan by senior White House officials.
Saipan is one of 14 islands in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands part of the U.S. Pacific family which lies 3,820 miles west of Hawaii. – an eight-hour flight/
The 60,000 residents are made up of indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian peoples, residents from the mainland U.S. and from all of the nearby Asian countries, Philippines, Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, and Bangladesh.
MHS a high school on island, has around 1,200 students from over twelve different countries.
The 50-minute Yellow Submarine dive showed the fascinated and curious students a close up view of the underwater home for a wide assortment of tropical fish and corals that inhibit this part of the Philippine Sea next to the Mariana Trench and North Pacific Ocean.
Jones, a long time underwater photographer and scuba diver, was delighted that some of his students have started to show interest in studying the blue ocean waters and life within the seas that cover 70 percent of our planet.
Some of the comments from students when asked: “What did the submarine dive help you to think about?”
Kate Edgar, 15, wrote: “It helped me to think about the Marine Environment that most of us don’t care about. It made me feel…united with the sea and the fishes living in it…as a part of the ecosystem system.”
Keoni Agetular, 14, wrote: “It also helped me think about all the things we can do to save all the loving things in the water…like the fish and the corals.”
Joey Songuo, 16, wrote: “The submarine dive helped me to think about protecting the natural beauty of our waters…meaning our lagoon.”
Elisa Fejeran wrote: “That I wished I could just walk around underwater and look around because it didn’t look so harmful at the bottom of the ocean unlike the top where the water is so rough, the bottom is calm.”
Ryan Ichiharo, 14: “It helped me to realize that we can do a lot better and save our water creatures before others kill or hurt them.”
John Lizardo, 15: “The purpose was to let us students understand how beautiful and how important marine life is to us.”
Jones said the Mariana Trench Marine Monument will “help our marine environment to be protected and make marine species reproduce evenly.”
He added, “The opportunity to witness first hand the magic of the real underwater water world and the creatures in it…was a first time educational experience for these island, high school students.”
After the unique underwater submarine experience the amazed and hungry students headed for their favorite place to eat with the famous yellow arches.
However, only one student ordered a “fish” burger.
