tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-98257792024-03-23T14:02:33.419-04:00The Saipan BlogWelcome to the adventures of Angelo O'Connor Villagomez, the godfather of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument and Saipan's most popular blogger since ever since.Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comBlogger1872125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-5735031975304816922023-12-03T14:10:00.002-05:002023-12-03T14:10:56.701-05:00AngeloVillagomez.com<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcm3yOPbK-cm5beBDOhnPRNdJjo8Ua9o-1MtNx1nd6bIlMDvfBsBRJg2NBfnf5yOOlbOmQkFkyvhHvRUVv4RVv1skDKMHscvvIqLhY_M_y2ZlzjoS49Qb9KyC41Q-VDecFJfKaNJ3xIaGX9kGBRKIW30oAMLZsdFFDcCL15tRzNJsg2bJgr7guw/s4000/20231105_100541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2252" data-original-width="4000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcm3yOPbK-cm5beBDOhnPRNdJjo8Ua9o-1MtNx1nd6bIlMDvfBsBRJg2NBfnf5yOOlbOmQkFkyvhHvRUVv4RVv1skDKMHscvvIqLhY_M_y2ZlzjoS49Qb9KyC41Q-VDecFJfKaNJ3xIaGX9kGBRKIW30oAMLZsdFFDcCL15tRzNJsg2bJgr7guw/w400-h225/20231105_100541.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on">Follow me elsewhere:</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://AngeloVillagomez.com">AngeloVillagomez.com</a> | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taotaotasi/">LinkedIn</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/taotaotasi/">Instagram </a>| <a href="https://www.threads.net/@taotaotasi">Threads</a> | <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/taotaotasi.bsky.social">Bluesky</a></div><p>I started this website in 2004 in the months after I graduated from Rollins College in Florida and was an avid blogger between 2005-2012. The Saipan Blog documents my journey from Florida, to Japan, to Saipan, then back to Florida, and up to Washington, DC where my career as a professional ocean advocate really took off. Along the way I helped create a big protected area and then my focus shifted to sharks and ultimately Indigenous-led conservation. Even though I haven't put much effort into this website in many years, it still gets readers and the most random of people will talk to me about it now and then.</p><p>This is officially my last post here. I put countless hours of effort into this website, so I'm going to leave it up until Google decides to take it down. I enjoyed my time as the Saipan Blogger. Thanks for reading. Follow me going forward with the links above.</p><p>--Angelo</p><p><br /></p>Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-44967542855327854012020-02-13T10:31:00.005-05:002024-01-21T12:46:06.858-05:00Indigenous Values and Ocean Policy in the Era of Climate Change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QkcJQPSMIKtPGTl7i4ABeevIa3g_eSH6zeCz31-7dtD05yN2ufjttiTOAoYrzeS_l8Vdj3giLL-azQUt2cA3ocUQJh1W8sGHMFndvWnkgWi0iPAgOp41BPVkXyh9IVXDljxjHA/s1600/2019SACNAS.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QkcJQPSMIKtPGTl7i4ABeevIa3g_eSH6zeCz31-7dtD05yN2ufjttiTOAoYrzeS_l8Vdj3giLL-azQUt2cA3ocUQJh1W8sGHMFndvWnkgWi0iPAgOp41BPVkXyh9IVXDljxjHA/s400/2019SACNAS.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: me</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've given this talk twice, first at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and more recently at a presentation for Indigenous People's Day at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC. It pulls on ideas I've written about on the pages of this blog and my <a href="https://twitter.com/taotaotasi">twitter </a>feed before, but folds it into a climate change framing of how Indigenous people can take UN recommendations and make them their own.<br />
<blockquote>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For those of you who tweet, please feel free to publicly share anything from the presentation. My twitter is <a href="https://twitter.com/taotaotasi">@TaotaoTasi</a><br />
<br />
Please allow me to quickly introduce where I am from. I am from the island of Saipan in Micronesian, part of the Northern Mariana Islands.
<br />
<br />
The Native people are called Chamorro – there’s also a second indigenous group who call themselves Refaluwasch. That’s my dad holding the guitar. I’ll let you guess which one I am.
<br />
<br />
I grew up doing all the things island boys do, from farming, hunting, playing the ukulele, and fishing.
<br />
<br />
Lots and lots of fishing. But I'm not going to lie, I also played my fair share of Super Mario Brothers.
<br />
<br />
Alright, I am going to start my talk by listing off some of the findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.<br />
<br />
This report, which can be referred to as the “IPCC report” in the shorthand, was released just last month, and outlines climate-related risks and challenges that people around the world are exposed to today and that future generations will face. It was approved by the 195 IPCC member governments.<br />
<br />
Notably:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Global warming has already reached 1°C above the pre-industrial level, due to past and current greenhouse gas emissions. </li>
<li>Sea level will continue to rise for centuries. It could reach around 30-60 cm by 2100 even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced and global warming is limited to well below 2°C.
Nearly 50% of coastal wetlands have been lost over the last 100 years.</li>
<li>Marine heatwaves have already resulted in large-scale coral bleaching events at increasing frequency.</li>
<li>Almost all warm-water coral reefs are projected to suffer significant losses of area and local extinctions.</li>
<li>Shifts in the distribution of fish populations have reduced the global catch potential. In the future, some regions, notably tropical oceans, will see further decreases.</li>
<li>The decline in warm water coral reefs is projected to greatly compromise the services they provide to society, such as food provision, coastal protection, and tourism.</li>
<li>Communities that depend highly on seafood may face risks to nutritional health and food security.</li>
<li>People with highest exposure and vulnerability to current and future hazards from changes are often also those with lowest adaptive capacity, particularly in low-lying islands. </li>
<li>These Small Island Developing States are home to 65 million people.</li>
</ul>
All of these facts combined point towards an obvious conclusion: The ocean today is warmer, more acidic, and less productive. And island people will be hit the hardest.<br />
<br />
In this changing world, we cannot simply rely on the old way of doing things. The survival of our cultures and our values require us to face these new realities. But I posit that we can use the best of who we are, looking to our ancestors for wisdom, to develop strategies for dealing with climate change.<br />
<br />
Let me explain.<br />
<br />
In the time of the ancestors, unlike today, the world must have seemed static and stable.
<br />
<br />
That consistency, over centuries, allowed my people to develop systems using the stars, the winds, and the living Creation to navigate their world.
<br />
<br />
From father to son, mother to daughter, chants and songs were passed down that told us how to provide for our families on a small island, and how to cross an ocean in an outrigger canoe.
<br />
<br />
The world of the voyagers of old was very different from the world we live in nowadays. There were more fish, more birds, more whales, more of everything that swims in the ocean, crawls on land, and flies through the sky.
<br />
<br />
A Palauan chief famously once said, “Fish is Culture.” This simple phrase perfectly describes how it was in crossing this blue Eden that we evolved into Pacific Islanders.
<br />
<br />
Ever since our identity has been strongly influenced by the natural world. All aspects of our unique way of life are derived from the ocean and our islands, including songs, dances, myths, stories, economies, world views, and governing systems.
<br />
<br />
But today we must navigate a modern world that is constantly changing – socially, economically, physically, and biologically – and confusing for everyone.
<br />
<br />
The world that existed in which we became Pacific Islanders is disappearing, affecting our islands and our people. The traditional structures that kept our families, communities, and cultures tied together are coming apart.
<br />
<br />
In an uncanny parallel, the same thing is happening to the integrity of our natural world, as warming oceans become increasing devoid of fish, yet full of plastic.
<br />
<br />
Seas teaming with seemingly inexhaustible populations of large fish now have fewer, smaller fish. At the same time, people stopped speaking their native languages.
<br />
<br />
Many species of whales, sharks, seabirds, and turtles are on the brink of extinction. And as karaoke replaced our local music, voyaging died out across Polynesia.<br />
<br />
And this change has come fast. <br />
<br />
I have dedicated my entire adult life to protecting the ocean, yet this loss has continued unabated. Young people scarcely believe stories of the abundance of life I remember so clearly from as recently as my childhood in Saipan. It seems at times as if our efforts to protect the ocean are always three steps behind our technological capacity to harm it.<br />
<br />
But hope is not lost. <br />
<br />
Pacific people are learning to read the signs in our modern world just as the ancestors did in their time. But where their navigation markers were the waves and the stars; our lodestar must be scientific knowledge informed by the values we hold as Pacific Islanders. A great start would be to follow the scientific advice to protect 30% of every ocean habitat.
<br />
<br />
The IPCC recommendations to reduce the impacts of climate change are crystal clear. The report finds that ONE strongly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, TWO protecting and restoring ecosystems, and THREE carefully managing the use of natural resources would make it possible to preserve the ocean.<br />
<br />
But for the purposes of this talk, I want to hone in on protecting and restoring ecosystems, because I believe this is an area where the Pacific has led the world.
<br />
<br />
Marine protected areas, as a concept, are not new to Pacific Islanders. For millennia, we have recognized when reefs have been fished too heavily and set them aside as no-fishing zones until they returned to their former richness. <br />
<br />
Across Micronesia, this concept has a few different names: mo in the Marshalls, for instance, bul in Palau, sil and meshung in the Federated States. It has a couple of different names in Polynesia, including Rahui. In Fiji they call it TAMBOO, which is where the English word TABOO comes from.
<br />
<br />
The modern western science which demonstrates the effectiveness of protected areas is also clear. Well designed and managed protected areas result in more fish, bigger fish, and higher levels of biodiversity.
<br />
<br />
And the most effective areas are large, isolated from human activity, fully protected, and well-enforced over long time periods.<br />
<br />
The Pacific has led the globe in setting up networks of marine protected areas. As an example, I will bring attention to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument here in Hawaii, it serves as the world’s greatest example of what can happen when communities, scientists, cultural leaders, and elected officials can accomplish when they work together. This is an area about half the size of all of India, that gives equal protection to nature and culture.
<br />
<br /><a href="https://www.angelovillagomez.com/2023/12/how-much-of-us-ocean-is-protected-it.html">Today nearly five percent of the global ocean is safeguarded within the confines of a marine protected area</a>. This may not seem like much, but it represents a five-fold increase over the last decade. This is an excellent start, but we need to do more, and we need to do it better, and we need to do it faster if we are going to protect thirty percent of every ocean habitat by 2030.<br />
<br />
While there is a long journey in front of us and much work needs to be done, a nascent renaissance wherein culture and conservation are intertwined is taking place in the Pacific.
<br />
<br />
As our people lead global efforts to end nuclear proliferation, reverse the effects of climate change, and make new and larger marine protected areas, there is an equal and parallel effort to bring traditional voyaging back to Polynesia, breathe new life into the arts, and promote the practice of speaking in indigenous languages. Our futures as the Taotao Tasi – the people of the ocean – depend on this movement growing.<br />
<br />
It is also important to remember that while we are trying to protect thirty percent of the ocean, we must also address sustainable fishing in the remaining seventy percent. And, we need to prioritize the reduction of the carbon warming our atmosphere and the plastic polluting our oceans, all of which add pressure on marine ecosystems, pushing them toward their breaking points.
<br />
<br />
Future generations of Pacific Islanders deserve a resilient and healthy ocean. Protecting the ocean is a reclamation of our cultures and our identifies and is one of the most important things we, as island people, can do for our survival and our legacy. My great hope is that the ocean my generation passes down to our children looks less like the ocean as it was handed to us, and more like the ocean as it was known to our ancestors.
<br />
<br />
Thank you!!
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-20438572330639741842019-12-13T13:43:00.001-05:002020-01-09T18:36:20.559-05:00Indigenous Worldviews<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you’re following the #COP25 discussion, hopefully you’re reading a lot about indigenous people in conservation. Allow me to post a blog about how indigenous worldviews can differ from Western ones, and how that can change our perspective.<br />
<br />
In general, Western cultures have a Judeo-Christian worldview that is influenced by Darwin. The universe is linear, with a start and an end, humankind is marching forward, the future is ahead of us, always improving, with the past behind us. The future is more important than the past. Young people are more important than old people.<br />
<br />
That’s not always the case with indigenous people. You’ve probably seen the movie Moana, where Maui talks about, “knowing where you are by knowing where you’ve been.” Let me unpack that for you.<br />
<br />
Indigenous people step backwards into the future, with the past in front of us. If you think about it, this logic makes much more sense. Wherever you are, (without using a mirror) can you tell what is behind you? Can you see what is front of you?<br />
<br />
Applying this to worldviews, we cannot see the future, we can only predict it. We can, however, see the past. We have lived the past, and it has given us learning, knowledge, and experience.<br />
<br />
Indigenous use the past, which is in front of us, to navigate backwards into the future, which we cannot see. Our ability to navigate purposely backwards into the future depends on our ability to look in front of us into the past. We use our learning, knowledge, and experience to predict where we are going.<br />
<br />
Now take this to the next level. If your core worldview recognizes that the past is needed to navigate the future, what do you value? You value knowledge and wisdom, you give respect to your elders, care deeply about your ancestors, and the traditions and cultural practices they handed down to you.<br />
<br />
The past is the source of knowledge, and we use it navigate our world. In the Judeo-Christian worldview, knowledge is new, and “discovered” by each successive generation; and it is used to move forward.<br />
<br />
This is a short blog, not a doctoral thesis, so I’ll stop there. Of course indigenous people are influenced by western worldviews, and often share them. The very word “indigenous” suggests a power dynamic wherein a colonial entity has taken land, power, and control away from Native people.<br />
<br />
But typically, Indigenous people are forced to understand the dominant culture’s worldview, whereas ours is ignored or ridiculed. <br />
<br />
If you would like to know Indigenous people, as most people do not, I encourage you to make some new friends and to listen to our concerns.
<br />
<br />
<i>I originally posted this as a thread on <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1205553195402924032">Twitter. Follow me!</a></i></div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-7858567287179673362019-06-01T13:00:00.000-04:002019-06-01T13:00:23.000-04:00Tiana's Graduation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92nmWz543nFqrH9fweFt6FsHrEY-FhVO4tbqIRmEqS9grklSodblWAPETJztctgDdM9k2ktrbhbCExCP_Ew0CJi9e8adJjMZSyOpLn4lpNYL1PyPk9wBmS8Rya_X7Jms-RUzQyg/s1600/20190523_101218%25280%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92nmWz543nFqrH9fweFt6FsHrEY-FhVO4tbqIRmEqS9grklSodblWAPETJztctgDdM9k2ktrbhbCExCP_Ew0CJi9e8adJjMZSyOpLn4lpNYL1PyPk9wBmS8Rya_X7Jms-RUzQyg/s400/20190523_101218%25280%2529.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
My niece Tiana graduated from high school in Florida last week. Edz and I drove down for the week, and also took time to go to Disney and the beach.<br />
<br />
We spent an afternoon at Disney Springs, the shopping and entertainment complex that used to be called Downtown Disney -- also where I worked for five years. My highlights were watching Detective Pikachu and eating at my old restaurant.<br />
<br />
We hit up Epcot the next day. We were there as the park opened and left only after the fireworks. It's been 7 years since I've been to this park, and it's still my favorite. When I was younger I loved the combination of science and geography, and now that it's peppered with beer and food and Frozen rides it's even better.<br />
<br />
The high school graduation was held in the same auditorium used for my graduation 23 years ago. Whoa. I'm not sure what I envisioned for my life all those years ago, but it wasn't what actually happened. It's exciting to think of all Tiana has in front of her. Opportunities and ambitions are endless at that stage of life. Congrats, Tiana!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NJjuw9sKrmSMlNdIZXaoNJbmkYMVwstREu6bmIkoHbIMyhMpVOscKV0jJyj5Qv7cypxe9sLL3RC2DxNTEWhw_SxP5xZnT1MBu3wB8qw8lZ16wSuZj6hkUlF5_1VAJ9ibPVlsAg/s1600/IMG_07191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NJjuw9sKrmSMlNdIZXaoNJbmkYMVwstREu6bmIkoHbIMyhMpVOscKV0jJyj5Qv7cypxe9sLL3RC2DxNTEWhw_SxP5xZnT1MBu3wB8qw8lZ16wSuZj6hkUlF5_1VAJ9ibPVlsAg/s400/IMG_07191.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-83584841788579557692019-05-31T11:00:00.001-04:002019-05-31T11:00:04.317-04:00Seafood Source Interview<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The excellent communications staff at the organization that employs me helped me talk to a reporter at <a href="https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/un-report-ocean-biodiversity-in-peril-to-due-overfishing-and-climate-change">Seafood Source</a> about the recent UN Biodiversity report and how it ties to a scientific paper on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X18301866?dgcid=author">highly migratory species and spatial protections</a>. This interview was done via email, and the reporter only used one of my answers, so I figured I'd post all of my answers for my two readers (Hi, Mom).<br />
<blockquote>
-What is the key to strategically placing marine protected areas and other spatial protections so that they actually benefit highly migratory species?<br />
"This paper highlighted the importance of identifying and protecting the habitats that are used by highly migratory species, including spawning and nursing aggregations, but also the importance of well managed, sustainable fisheries to protecting these species."<br />
<br />
-Would MPAs need to cover multiple national jurisdictions to be effective for these highly migratory species? Are there examples of this type of cooperation between jurisdictions occurring?<br />
"The International Union for Conservation of Nature recommends protecting 30% of every ocean habitat, but doesn't provide guidance on implementing this across political boundaries. Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands have collaborated on shark conservation, and have zero retention quotas for all shark species across their jurisdictions. They have collaborated on enforcement and training."<br />
<br />
-Should fishermen be opposed to spatial protections for highly migratory species? Why or why not?<br />
"This study shows that well designed and enforced protected areas and sustainable fisheries management can benefit highly migratory fish populations. I've never met a fisherman who is opposed to having more fish in the ocean."<br />
<br />
-In your opinion, what policies/measures other than spatial protections need to be implemented to ensure the health of these highly migratory fish populations?<br />
"If we're going to follow the IUCN advice and protect 30% of every ocean habitat, we're also going to need to ensure that our fisheries are sustainable and well managed. Fisheries management provides many options to achieve this, from gear restrictions, catch limits, trip limits, size restrictions, and all the other tools available to fisheries managers."<br />
<br />
-The UN Biodiversity report came out in the last couple weeks, and was a fresh wakeup call that biodiversity is threatened. But this isn't really new news, is it?<br />
"The ocean faces many threats, and climate change and plastic pollution get most of the attention in the media. The UN Biodiversity report reminded us, and I quote, "direct exploitation of organisms, mainly from fishing, has had the largest relative negative impact on nature since 1970."<br />
<br />
-What do you see as the key ways to protect or even increase biodiversity?<br />
"There is a mature body of science which shows the greatest benefits to biodiversity come from fully protected ocean sanctuaries."<br />
<br />
-What are the benefits of more diverse oceans for fishermen?<br />
"Simple, more fish for them to catch."</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-5775763208555061062019-04-20T08:14:00.001-04:002024-01-21T12:46:56.987-05:00Our Voices Will Be Heard: Save the Ocean, Save my People<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivl65_I6E5Rd1gHWcwLnwGlRU32HN47PjPdikRRO2u4evZLCw8tejN9cejni6kXOsswKNeHSfn60idRUWmFO_ziAxT5pvINSFfR7ZGtqRZVs21QfJZ0OUFbeloib13b-hOJ2IRcg/s1600/IMG_5634.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivl65_I6E5Rd1gHWcwLnwGlRU32HN47PjPdikRRO2u4evZLCw8tejN9cejni6kXOsswKNeHSfn60idRUWmFO_ziAxT5pvINSFfR7ZGtqRZVs21QfJZ0OUFbeloib13b-hOJ2IRcg/s400/IMG_5634.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sailing canoe inside the Pohnpei lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the time of the ancestors, the world must have seemed static and stable. That consistency, over centuries, allowed my people to develop <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/01/moana-we-are-explorers-reading-every.html">systems using the stars, the winds, and the living Creation to navigate their world</a>. From father to son, mother to daughter, chants and songs were passed down that told us how to provide for our families on a small island, and how to cross an ocean in an outrigger canoe.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBoSj-GAOboHXyKllQyuHiaWtu9eIPapl8p-SWSoP5vLEkhPFDd_07ntkeOBAlkLXhPpzhOiaRHfbatBVX03wuadcb8dpcZx_XzDKDLxuFKJCcWZttlj7Op74cGo_a5-DNApCgQ/s1600/backintheday+003.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="1049" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBoSj-GAOboHXyKllQyuHiaWtu9eIPapl8p-SWSoP5vLEkhPFDd_07ntkeOBAlkLXhPpzhOiaRHfbatBVX03wuadcb8dpcZx_XzDKDLxuFKJCcWZttlj7Op74cGo_a5-DNApCgQ/s400/backintheday+003.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was a long time ago, on an island far, far away.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2018/01/connecting-conservation-and-culture-in.html">Pacific identity is strongly influenced by the natural world</a>. All aspects of our unique way of life are derived from the ocean and our islands, including songs, dances, myths, stories, economies, world views, and governing systems. Our culture is the environment; our environment is our economy.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gpWKuQPe41HocdeSP6ACyNhZyIPavqD6sfdIkb3ti5Wrpjj04C_7MrP9z0ku4ySn7Mne2r4p6rcOMqF8igvub35Hb-QMPQHQTRjgTK7qLdYX7bHklq3JPzBp06JGJjVfUpoiyA/s1600/chamorro+gothic.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="460" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gpWKuQPe41HocdeSP6ACyNhZyIPavqD6sfdIkb3ti5Wrpjj04C_7MrP9z0ku4ySn7Mne2r4p6rcOMqF8igvub35Hb-QMPQHQTRjgTK7qLdYX7bHklq3JPzBp06JGJjVfUpoiyA/s400/chamorro+gothic.jpg" width="303" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My grandparents on their farm in Saipan.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But today, as Pacific Islanders emerge from the shadows cast by five centuries of western colonialism, we must navigate a modern world that is constantly changing and confusing for everyone. The traditional structures that kept our families, communities, and cultures tied together are coming apart. In an uncanny parallel, the same thing is happening to the integrity of our natural world, as warming oceans become increasing devoid of fish, yet full of plastic.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjukde_IPoe_SG5cCQIrPBKoelMpEUiYxT5xVPh1qjtLuNJ9E_ON3ZAlcS7sfg8kLIpscePEe-K6eIirORE_87dDMay9Yrk6gBhkbqlfmS5cW1OyDSWDilXkqNMaVcbt_6Mfxxs_Q/s1600/surgeon+fish.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjukde_IPoe_SG5cCQIrPBKoelMpEUiYxT5xVPh1qjtLuNJ9E_ON3ZAlcS7sfg8kLIpscePEe-K6eIirORE_87dDMay9Yrk6gBhkbqlfmS5cW1OyDSWDilXkqNMaVcbt_6Mfxxs_Q/s400/surgeon+fish.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A school of whitespotted surgeonfish (<i>Acanthurus guttatus</i>) in one of the marine protected areas around Saipan. This was my father's favorite fish.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This change has come fast. Young people scarcely believe stories of the abundance of life I remember so clearly from my childhood in Saipan. There were more fish, sharks, and turtles; there was simply more of everything that swims in the ocean, crawls on land, and flies through the sky. <a href="https://360.rollins.edu/people/underwater-overseer">I have dedicated my entire adult life to protecting the ocean</a>, yet this loss has continued unabated. It seems at times as if our efforts to protect the ocean are always three steps behind our technological capacity to harm it.<br />
<br />
If we are going to survive, Pacific people must learn to read the signs in our modern world just as the ancestors did in their time. But where their navigation markers were the waves and the stars; our lodestar must be scientific knowledge informed by the values we hold as Pacific Islanders. A great start would be to follow the scientific advice to protect 30% of every ocean habitat.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjej7IprvroUvK-geqNDQplelwNm0CfQzsOSATcr0rREO2FIcy6UXR7570omZZvFzXTlngbhvWBU-PE2WUBSJ9MsdJAcnoF_Y_lHZ626LRMfId2eqpjkcOHeuNUKOFDW0sTNAmkrQ/s1600/4787315540_a47b00b668_o+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1337" data-original-width="1600" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjej7IprvroUvK-geqNDQplelwNm0CfQzsOSATcr0rREO2FIcy6UXR7570omZZvFzXTlngbhvWBU-PE2WUBSJ9MsdJAcnoF_Y_lHZ626LRMfId2eqpjkcOHeuNUKOFDW0sTNAmkrQ/s400/4787315540_a47b00b668_o+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My father Ramon G. Villagomez helped put in place some of the first protected areas in the Marianas as a delegate to the Northern Mariana Islands First Constitutional Convention. This is a photo I took on the shores of Maug Island in 2009. The island was first protected in 1977.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Marine protected areas, as a concept, are not new to Pacific Islanders. For millennia, we have recognized when reefs have been fished too heavily and set them aside as no-fishing zones until they returned to their former richness. Across Micronesia, this concept has a few different names: mo in the Marshalls, for instance, bul in Palau, sil and meshung in the Federated States.<br />
<br />
The modern science which demonstrates the effectiveness of protected areas is also clear. <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2018/07/marine-protected-areas-iucn-global.html">Well designed and managed protected areas</a> result in more fish, bigger fish, and higher levels of biodiversity. And the most effective areas are large, isolated from human activity, fully protected, and well-enforced over long time periods.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO4YBuTpZHqfwcEOzPQzh8BwTAJ0-5sc509QvSbuCsJUkjnSp2eNo6xc-Jvdb7xpVi6RgFEW21_VsueusJ2ZLUh3zLdubKAfo_6D7TpapyduDpKiVroVouB9UnBbSuLOCKWDuKRQ/s1600/IMG_1875.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO4YBuTpZHqfwcEOzPQzh8BwTAJ0-5sc509QvSbuCsJUkjnSp2eNo6xc-Jvdb7xpVi6RgFEW21_VsueusJ2ZLUh3zLdubKAfo_6D7TpapyduDpKiVroVouB9UnBbSuLOCKWDuKRQ/s400/IMG_1875.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sustainable fishing requires science and funding for management and enforcement.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is also important to remember that while we are trying to protect thirty percent of the ocean, we must also address sustainable fishing in the remaining seventy percent. And, we need to prioritize the reduction of the carbon warming our atmosphere and the plastic polluting our oceans, all of which add pressure on marine ecosystems, pushing them toward their breaking points.<br />
<br />
While there is a long journey in front of us and much work needs to be done, I maintain hope. A nascent renaissance wherein culture and conservation are intertwined is taking place in the Pacific. As our people lead global efforts to end nuclear proliferation, reverse the effects of climate change, and make new and larger marine protected areas, there is an equal and parallel effort to bring traditional voyaging back to Polynesia, breathe new life into the arts, and promote the practice of speaking in indigenous languages. Our futures as the Taotao Tasi – the people of the ocean – depend on this movement growing. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMoGUn6FQejvQu6wDvU2jyiznm7ipVts3HQzPSlNMm6DuLavgRJj1Q3K6hUEqSqH0cEG8rn-GFdYexjJNBqT7_gv778xYX8fo1MgeE-jmYaw-1owEVfCsayeXN8M5bzpwFLX4S0A/s1600/watershed2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMoGUn6FQejvQu6wDvU2jyiznm7ipVts3HQzPSlNMm6DuLavgRJj1Q3K6hUEqSqH0cEG8rn-GFdYexjJNBqT7_gv778xYX8fo1MgeE-jmYaw-1owEVfCsayeXN8M5bzpwFLX4S0A/s400/watershed2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I did a lot of beach cleanups early in my career. We're going to be doing this for the rest of our lives, and we need to figure out how to dump less plastic in the ocean in the first place.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://www.angelovillagomez.com/2023/12/how-much-of-us-ocean-is-protected-it.html">Barely five percent of the global ocean is safeguarded within the confines of a marine protected area</a> today. This may not seem like much, but it represents a five-fold increase over the last decade. This is an excellent start, but we need to do more, and we need to do it better, and we need to do it faster if we are going to protect thirty percent of every ocean habitat by 2030.<br />
<br />
Future generations of Pacific Islanders deserve a resilient and healthy ocean. <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/02/this-might-work.html">Protecting the ocean is a reclamation of our cultures and our identifies</a> and is one of the most important things we, as island people, can do for our survival and our legacy. My great hope is that the ocean my generation passes down to our children looks less like the ocean as it was handed to us, and more like the ocean as it was known to our ancestors.
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3COUyPjThw4dY8KcwBWjUWmC009fb2rPtBQBCrWahyphenhyphene9L8ToNFC0_w1nVUcd4byL8FoW30P94Jpflfi_TyO_dORgMO5_kUU7-x23FsGsMf79J-tnw2IttpRTBxis3oaJZ9sEg6w/s1600/TT175ilU.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3COUyPjThw4dY8KcwBWjUWmC009fb2rPtBQBCrWahyphenhyphene9L8ToNFC0_w1nVUcd4byL8FoW30P94Jpflfi_TyO_dORgMO5_kUU7-x23FsGsMf79J-tnw2IttpRTBxis3oaJZ9sEg6w/s400/TT175ilU.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angelo Villagomez (that's me!) is an indigenous conservation advocate from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For further reading:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>This actually started as a <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1118548272728223746">Twitter thread</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2DnLNY9">Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2GxJKTv">We Are the Ocean: Selected Works</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2ZouXlf">We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2KRczyr">The Last Navigator: A Young Man, an Ancient Mariner, the Secrets of the Sea</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2IKnx5W">East is a Big Bird: Navigation and Logic on Puluwat Atoll</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
Other Saipan Blog posts on culture and conservation:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2018/01/connecting-conservation-and-culture-in.html">Connecting Conservation and Culture in Oceania</a> (2018)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/01/moana-we-are-explorers-reading-every.html">Moana: We Are Explorers Reading Every Sign</a> (2017)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/02/napoleonic-wars.html">The Ocean Frontier is Closed</a> (2016)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/03/practicing-my-culture-redux.html?q=redux">Practicing My Culture Redux</a> (2008)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/02/napoleonic-wars.html">Napoleonic Wars</a> (2008)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br /></div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-36674796513714730062019-04-13T11:07:00.000-04:002019-04-13T11:07:47.323-04:00Two Weeks of #30EarthMonthHeroesStarting on April 1, I challenged Twitter users to <a href="http://www.southernfriedscience.com/30-earth-month-heroes/">spend all of Earth Month tagging their conservation heroes</a> using the hashtag #30EarthMonthHeroes.<br><br>
I posted the challenge on my <a href="http://www.southernfriedscience.com/30-earth-month-heroes/">Southern Fried Science</a> blog:<br>
<blockquote>I’d like to invite you to participate in a Twitter hashtag campaign for the entire month. The purpose of this campaign is to bring some attention and praise to the people who are doing great conservation work. I’m calling the campaign #30EarthMonthHeroes.<br><br>
Participation is easy. Starting on April 1, post a tweet about someone who you think is doing great work to protect the Earth or the Ocean, either someone you know or someone you would like to know. Say something nice, upload a photo, link to a story or a video, tag them, and use the hashtag #30EarthMonthHeroes.<br><br>
Each subsequent day, thread one additional tweet about someone you admire. It’s important to thread your tweets, so that by the time you get to April 30, you will have one single long thread. If you thread them properly, throughout the month, as readers find your tweets they will be able to easily scroll up and down to find the people that you’ve been tweeting about. If this works the way I hope it will, even the people who find your tweets as late as April 30, will still be scrolling back to your tweets from April 1. <br><br>
If all goes according to plan, we reach new audiences on a large scale and greatly impact the conversation about conservation, while building a twitter following for ourselves, as well as the people who we call out as Earth Month Heroes. Plus it’s nice to hear from your colleagues when you are doing a good job.</blockquote>
Half the inspiration for #30EarthMonthHeroes was a <a href="https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1091330302515994624">Black History Month Twitter thread by Qasim Rashid</a>. When I stumbled across it, I asked myself how I could do something similar, and thought about either April as Earth Month or June as Ocean Month as a good time. The other inspiration came from my Twitter brand -- I spend a lot of time promoting other people on Twitter. I've done threads on Indigenous Pacific Islanders in Conservation, Micronesian Role Models, and Women in Science, so combining these two strategies I came up with #30EarthMonthHeroes.<br><br>
The response from the conservation community has been greater than I expected. In the first two days alone, more than 50 people started posting about their heroes. It's been a real joy to watch who people tag. The late Rachel Carson and Eugenie Clark have been mentioned multiple times, as have conservation heavyweights Sylvia Earle, Jane Goodall, and pretty much all of the Cousteaus. Some of the people I've met at science conferences are getting a lot of love, especially Asha Devos, Sonya Fordham, Diva Amon, and Michelle LaRue. Others are tagging big organizations (like the one that employs me). Even a few fictitious characters like Captain Planet and Smokey the Bear are getting tagged. The best posts, though, are the ones where people tag mentors, colleagues, and role models.<br><br>
Ron Swanson said it best, "You chose a thankless job, you can’t be upset when nobody thanks you. Don't start chasing applause and acclaim. That way lies madness."<br><br>
But still, it's nice to hear from your colleagues that you are appreciated.<br><br>
Thanks to everyone who has participated so far, and if you are reading this, I encourage you to join us. The rules are very simple:
<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today is the first day of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/30EarthMonthHeroes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#30EarthMonthHeroes</a><br>It's simple to participate:<br>1. Tag someone you know (or would like to know) who does great things to protect our earth and ocean<br>2. Tomorrow tag/thread another person<br>3. Repeat for 30 days<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakeEarthDayEveryDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakeEarthDayEveryDay</a><a href="https://t.co/Ktz450aDj4">https://t.co/Ktz450aDj4</a></p>— Angelo Villagomez (@TaotaoTasi) <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1112750471150821376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-16010130710553839852019-02-22T10:51:00.000-05:002019-02-22T11:23:24.712-05:00Happy Birthday to the World's Deepest Protected Area<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GSXTUkQ6YAoQuWOpDWt7zxI6HCS6XSmQhHK8l4cx_Pp53041e5UiosVGlR14j1p9U83NAP9S1i9oS2Ae2dTq_l6MQ876qnDC59vct5ifsM6qSTqP2JWfqJeMcvf1gOeTX5TpVQ/s1600/3588137453_d911d0b242_o+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GSXTUkQ6YAoQuWOpDWt7zxI6HCS6XSmQhHK8l4cx_Pp53041e5UiosVGlR14j1p9U83NAP9S1i9oS2Ae2dTq_l6MQ876qnDC59vct5ifsM6qSTqP2JWfqJeMcvf1gOeTX5TpVQ/s400/3588137453_d911d0b242_o+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's skinny Angelo at the White House signing ceremony for three marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean with (from left) Ignacio V. Cabrera, Friends of the Mariana Trench chair; Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic explorer in residence; Agnes McPhetres, Friends of the Mariana Trench vice chair; and Jean-Michel Cousteau, French oceanographic explorer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I’ll never forget the moment 10 years ago when I witnessed the White House signing ceremony for the creation of marine national monuments in the Mariana Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, and Rose Atoll. At one point during his remarks, President George W. Bush, who two years earlier had designated the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, looked straight into my eyes and gave me a nod as he acknowledged the importance of his administration’s dialogue with the Chamorro and Refaluwasch people, the indigenous residents of the Mariana Islands and longtime stewards of the Mariana Trench. With a few more strokes of the pen, on that cold January morning President Bush protected more of the planet than any other person had at that point in history.<br />
<br />
I was raised on Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, and have the tattoos to prove it. I’m one of those indigenous people whom President Bush was talking about, and I was joined that day by two other Chamorros, Ignacio V. Cabrera and Agnes McPhetres, and Refaluwasch Governor Benigno R. Fitial. <br />
<br />
January 6, 2009,
was a day of celebration, the culmination of a nearly two-year campaign by environmental and indigenous activists in the Northern Marianas. In
the lead-up to the designation, the Friends
of the Mariana Trench hosted 115 public meetings to discuss ocean conservation with the community.
I was a founding member of this dedicated group of ocean lovers, and helped to lead an effort to build local support for protecting the
waters around some of our isolated uninhabited islands in a proposed marine national
monument. <br />
<br />
In our community of 50,000 residents, we gathered over 6,000
signatures and 500 letters in support of a large marine reserve and earned the backing
of environmental organizations, businesses, and the majority of local citizens,
including nearly all of our elected officials.<br />
<br />
Most people hear about these protected areas only when they are created—or, sadly, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/meet-the-nations-most-endangered-monuments/2017/08/22/85de9ea8-8432-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.html?utm_term=.d19b4faedddc">when they are being proposed for elimination</a>. But conservation doesn’t end with designation. This 10-year anniversary presents an opportunity to look back at the decade since the creation of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, the protected area I hold closest to my heart. <br />
<br />
<b>The Good</b><br />
The most important outcome of the designation has been protection
of biodiversity. The monument’s Islands Unit—one of three units that make up the
site—restricts all commercial fishing but allows some carefully managed recreational,
noncommercial, and traditional indigenous fishing. According to a peer-reviewed
study published in 2014 in the journal Nature, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13022">the most effective marine protected areas (MPAs) are large, no-take, well enforced, isolated, and in place for many years</a>. The Islands Unit meets most of these criteria, and does so without harming
American fisheries. In fact, taken together, the four Pacific marine monuments are
strong evidence that the U.S. can have both sustainable fisheries and protected
habitat.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLZeQctiWwltRs2UoOT0k6GHIYEVtmjk01MYfdZ8Z57hYcpTczt_LZxY1_U7Ubw6NAKKkNTHhYgwc5T-DkKc5zfLX9DFFQAnkJc3KHf18ZaYhxzCEMtb9XsyecdwAhFsL3GbzHg/s1600/16716211_1592825757412728_5382813657189186966_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLZeQctiWwltRs2UoOT0k6GHIYEVtmjk01MYfdZ8Z57hYcpTczt_LZxY1_U7Ubw6NAKKkNTHhYgwc5T-DkKc5zfLX9DFFQAnkJc3KHf18ZaYhxzCEMtb9XsyecdwAhFsL3GbzHg/s400/16716211_1592825757412728_5382813657189186966_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NOAA discovered this now iconic glowing jellyfish during the Okeanos Explorer missions in 2016.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A second benefit is an increase in scientific research and broader
interest in the region. In the past 10 years, academic and government researchers
from <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2126246/chinese-scientists-hear-sound-mariana-trench-deepest">China</a>, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/25/national/science-health/japan-team-films-fish-deepest-ever-depth/">Japan</a>, and the <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/welcome.html">U.S.</a><span id="goog_435733628"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_435733629"></span> have used submersibles to explore the Mariana Trench,
which includes the deepest known point into the ocean, Challenger Deep,
measured at 37,070 feet below sea level. They have discovered the world’s deepest-living
fish, airplanes lost during World War II, and otherworldly life forms that look
as if they belong in science fiction movies. And in 2012, James Cameron, the filmmaker
and deep-sea explorer, became only<a href="https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/00000144-0a22-d3cb-a96c-7b2fb4a30000"> the third person in history to descend to the bottom ofthe Mariana Trench</a>. <br />
<br />
On that January day 10 years ago, President Bush solidified the
United States’ global leadership in conservation and inspired other countries to
take similar actions. Since then, governments and international bodies have established
some of the world’s largest protected areas in the waters of Antarctica, Australia,
Brazil, Kiribati, Mexico, Palau, and the United Kingdom. According to the <a href="http://www.mpatlas.org/map/mpas/">Marine Conservation Institute’s Atlas of Marine Protection</a>, 4.8 percent of the ocean now
exists within marine protected areas, a fivefold increase from 2009.<br />
<br />
<b>Room for Improvement</b><br />
Despite these benefits, the Friends of the Mariana Trench believe the wrong government agencies were put in charge of the monument. Before the designation, <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/10/vision-statement-open-letter-to.html">the group advocated</a> for a site managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. But instead, management authority was assigned to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries. Since 2009, the Friends have tirelessly advocated to improve the management of the monument. Currently, NOAA <a href="https://nominate.noaa.gov/nominations/">is considering a nomination to overlay the existing monument</a> with a national marine sanctuary, as was first proposed in 2008.<br />
<br />
The primary shortcoming of the monument is that, to date, there have been no monument-related hires in Saipan, and the federal government hasn’t released draft plans for managing the monument. The island community expected the monument to spark an increase in federal jobs and educational programs on the islands, an expectation linked to the campaign to create the monument and the assumption NOAA Sanctuaries would be the manager. The response in the community has ranged from <a href="https://www.saipantribune.com/index.php/mariana-trench-more-waiting/">disappointment</a> to <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/334982/cnmi-says-marianas-trench-monument-not-working">outright hostility</a>.<br />
<br />
Many community members believe that the U.S. government needs to better manage the Pacific marine monuments and boost their funding while ensuring that some of that funding reaches the Northern Mariana Islands. In 2018, the <a href="https://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov/fac/">Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee</a>, which advises the government on MPA management, found that the country’s MPAs “face increasing challenges” and that NOAA should “fully support, maintain, evaluate, and adaptively manage” those areas, including a “transparent and inclusive public planning process.”This perspective is backed by science, as another peer-reviewed study published in 2017 in the journal Nature found<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21708"> the strongest predictors of conservation impact are staff and budget capacity</a>.<br />
<br />
This recommendation should apply to the Pacific marine monuments. I hope that the second decade of
the Mariana Trench monument sees NOAA overlay the sanctuary within the monument, which would bring NOAA Sanctuaries into the fold of managing the area and increase the funding that reaches communities in the Northern Mariana
Islands. <br />
<br />
<b>Reason to Hope</b><br />
The world needs more—and better—marine protections. As this decade started, the United Nations, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, set an ambitious target of protecting 10 percent of the ocean by 2020. Meeting that goal depends on the <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/02/22/how-much-of-the-ocean-is-really-protected">definition of “protection</a><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324868428_Assessing_real_progress_towards_effective_ocean_protection">,</a>” but the good news is that there’s no argument over the fact that the area set aside for conservation on land and sea has increased exponentially in the past decade. <br />
<br />
Today, the <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2016/09/13/wcc-calls-for-protecting-at-least-30-percent-of-the-ocean-including-the-high-seas">International Union for Conservation of Nature recommends protecting 30 percent of every ocean habitat</a> in marine protected areas and conserved areas. But simply designating more of the ocean as protected
will ultimately shortchange both the marine environment and the communities that
depend on it unless policymakers put in the time and effort to ensure that existing
areas, such as the Mariana Trench, are managed effectively. <br />
<br />
I’m confident that the leaders of today can act in our—and the
planet’s—best interest. In doing so, they would refresh the optimism that I felt
a decade ago as I witnessed President Bush signing the marine monument declarations.
They also would help secure a healthy, sustainable future for our ocean and my fellow Pacific islanders who are inextricably linked to its fate.</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-43467906991009095112019-01-19T22:45:00.001-05:002019-01-19T22:51:28.937-05:00Ukulele Chords: Up on the Hills of Saipan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<center>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YiV5nWEfzbU" width="480"></iframe></center>
<br />
One of the most popular songs to sing on Saipan is 'Up on the Hills of Saipan'. It's one of those songs that someone plays and everyone within earshot starts singing along. It would be like our island anthem if we didn't already have a <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2016/10/cnmi-anthem-ukulele-chords.html">commonwealth anthem</a>. (The song is actually a rip off of Johnny Sablan's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4qg8-YZArQ">Agat Town</a>.")<br />
<br />
A while back I wanted to find the lyrics and the ukulele chords so that I could learn to play the song, but as hard as I looked I couldn't find them anywhere. Well, I did the hard work and got them for you and pasted them below. I think the chords are mostly right.<br />
<br />
The way they sing the song on the islands is reaaally slooow, which kind of makes sense because it's a sad song about someone who left home and the girl that they love. But I think you can pick up the tempo.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Up on the Hills of Saipan</b><br />
Up on the [C] hill lies the village of the place that I love best <br />
In my home on Saipan [G7]<br />
<br />
[C]Where the roses bloom no more<br />
By my [F] little ranchador<br />
In my [C] home on the [G7] hills of Saipan [C}<br />
<br />
When it’s [F] night in my dream<br />
Take me [C] back to the sea<br />
Back along the rocks on the [G7] hill<br />
<br />
[C]Where the roses bloom no more<br />
By my [F] little ranchador<br />
In my [C] home on the [G7] hills of Saipan [C]<br />
<br />
I’ve got a [C] sweetheart waiting there with dark eyes and curly hair<br />
Waiting for me back on the [G7] hills<br />
[C] I’ll be happy all my life if [F] she will be my wife<br />
And I’ll be [C] happy in my [G7] home in Saipan [C]<br />
<br />
When it’s [F] night in my dream<br />
Take me [C] back to the sea<br />
Back along the rocks on the [G7] hill<br />
<br />
[C]Where the roses bloom no more<br />
By my [F] little ranchador<br />
In my [C] home on the [G7] hills of Saipan [C]<br />
<br />
I’ve got a [C] sweetheart waiting there with dark eyes and curly hair<br />
Waiting for me back on the [G7] hills<br />
[C] I’ll be happy all my life if [F] she will be my wife<br />
And I’ll be [C] happy in my [G7] home in Saipan [C]</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-9421532296904471492018-12-12T19:00:00.001-05:002018-12-17T10:45:26.639-05:00Large Scale Fisheries Operations Proposed for Marianas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Pacific Islands News Association is one of the best resources for tuna news in the Pacific. This week they are reporting from Honolulu for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and have filed several reports about the politics surrounding the tuna industry.<br />
<br />
A story about the <a href="http://www.pina.com.fj/?p=pacnews&m=read&o=16616606855c10a0a6e49579ebbaf2" target="_blank">Marianas caught my eye</a>, from the story:<br />
<blockquote>
Meanwhile, Northern Marianas Governor Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres called on the WCPFC for financial assistance to develop their fisheries.
<br />
<br />
“We have fisheries resources in our waters but lack access to capital needed to institute <b>large scale fisheries operations (emphasis mine)</b>. In this regard CNMI Is interested in how the commission can insist some members and territories to obtain increased benefits and capacity derived from tuna Fisheries in the region," said Torres.</blockquote>
I know Governor Torres. He is my second cousin. Like all Pacific Island men, he considers himself a fishermen. He's also a jobs guy. He prides himself in bringing the casino to Saipan and all that has resulted from that. I assume he sees fishing as an additional economic activity that could buoy up the economy. That is a valid point of view, and is in line with the Trump Administration priorities to exploit American natural resources. And the governor is very much a Trump guy. But I don't think Saipan will have any industrial fisheries anytime soon for the following reasons:<br />
<br />
1. Tan Holdings owns one of the largest fishing companies in the world. If fishing was profitable in the Marianas, they would already be fishing there. Just ask Jerry Tan.<br />
<br />
2. There have been several heavily subsidized attempts to start industrial fishing in the Marianas, and they have all gone belly up. The Lady Carolina, the longline vessel wrecked in our lagoon, made more money <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2009/08/northern-islands.html" target="_blank">taking tourists to look at fish</a> than it ever did trying to catch fish.<br />
<br />
3. There are no local people who will want to work on a fishing boat for weeks at a time.<br />
<br />
So not only do I think it won't happen, but I think it is a bad idea for the following reasons:<br />
<br />
1. The fishing fleet based out of Hawaii has been exposed <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/09/13/493801034/ap-report-exposes-slave-like-conditions-on-hawaii-fishing-fleets" target="_blank">using slave labor</a>. Saipan has enough human trafficking problems with the casino. A fishing fleet would invite more abuse.<br />
<br />
2. If Saipan wants commercial fishing, we should be talking to Palau, Micronesia, the Marshalls, and the other members of the PNA, rather than taking our cues from Hawaii.<br />
<br />
3. Saipan has already <a href="http://www.southernfriedscience.com/protect-our-oceans-from-the-ground-in-guam-and-the-commonwealth-of-the-northern-mariana-islands/" target="_blank">pre-approved a plan that would allow the governor to sell our waters to the Chinese.</a> I don't want to sell our waters to the Chinese and would prefer that local fish be caught by local fishermen.<br />
<br />
4. The rest of the world is moving in the direction of more conservation and sustainability. With the Mariana Trench Monument, about 5% of the United States waters around the Marianas are protected from commercial fishing, while making allowances for recreational, non-commercial, and traditional indigenous fishing. The other 95% is open to fishing. I wish the Marianas was talking about increasing ocean protection, not ocean exploitation.<br />
<br />
5. High end tourism does better when tied to conservation initiatives. Look at every national park around the world as evidence.<br />
<br />
So what the heck is going on? Why push for something that has already failed several times? Why throw more good money after bad? Why undermine Saipan's reputation as a green destination?<br />
<br />
I blame Hawaii. The CNMI representatives who represent us at WCPFC tend to do whatever the Hawaiians tell them to do. In fact, in most of the WCPFC meetings I've attended, a Hawaiian was sitting on the CNMI delegation. Everything the CNMI says at these meetings is to the benefit of the Hawaiian fishing fleet. I suspect the calls for increased fishing subsidies in the Marianas are somehow tied to the ask for <a href="https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/pacific-nations-resist-us-push-lift-tuna-quota-doc-1bi0vy2" target="_blank">increased fishing quota for the Hawaiian fleet</a>.<br />
<br />
UPDATE 1/17/2018<br />
<br />
Did I call it or did I call it? The <a href="https://www.saipantribune.com/index.php/torres-commercial-fishing-viable-in-nmi/">Saipan Tribune</a> reports on this story today:<br />
<blockquote>
"One of the topics at the meeting is the effort being done by the United States to increase the catch limit in the Pacific, which is the world’s largest fishing ground for tuna. The U.S. is pushing for a quota of 4,600 tons."</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-86462724640361995062018-12-05T16:43:00.003-05:002021-07-21T15:12:41.747-04:00Rollins College Undersea Overseer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Earlier this year my alma mater Rollins College recognized my career with an <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2018/04/alumni-achievement.html">alumni achievement award</a>. I received the award back in April and at the ceremony I got to meet the mayor of Oakland and the US Secretary of the Navy, who were also award recipients. A few months later they published a <a href="https://360.rollins.edu/people/underwater-overseer">story about my career in our alumni magazine</a> (and dubbed me the Undersea Overseer) which made me sound way cooler than I actually am. And since all things college confer privileges and responsibilities (otherwise known as kuleana), I was asked to give a talk at an Alumni gathering in Washington, DC in November.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I've never written about The Pew Charitable Trusts Boonie Dog Show and the gentle ribbing I get for it at work. I included it at part of my remarks and share it here. Enjoy!</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In 2008 I led the community effort to build support for a marine protected area around the Mariana Trench, running a grassroots campaign to build and document support from the island communities,
I won’t give you a full run down of how we did it, but I will tell one story. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Before I start though, let me explain that in the 11 years that I’ve worked for Pew, I’ve come to understand that my organization is quite well regarded around the world and that working for them can be seen by some to be prestigious. <br />
<br />
For example, if you go to the Smithsonian and visit the American History Museum, you’ll see one of the main sponsors of the Star Spangled Banner exhibit is Pew. We also fund a lot of important polling and research, and this informs public debate on many significant issues. My bosses – and their bosses – and their bosses – are very proud of the organization. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I did not really understand this when I was the dude in the Aloha shirt working on the island for Pew in 2008 – and I didn’t really understand that we had a reputation to uphold.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Had I known this, I never would have organized the Pew Charitable Trusts Saipan Boonie Dog Show.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw5FPPN22UgkucnfAdL9xyg5QGtOMdBWLvsNwaB0Rxur_TLJ1Y1Km1koA4ZUgqSDqMAPVuugA7JPdUjqLsvOGuV4Uz3n-Om2C7vH-hM1aGNsfcr5MmNaEepJAh69EroXCMyVQNFQ/s1600/165704_184707158224602_8162777_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw5FPPN22UgkucnfAdL9xyg5QGtOMdBWLvsNwaB0Rxur_TLJ1Y1Km1koA4ZUgqSDqMAPVuugA7JPdUjqLsvOGuV4Uz3n-Om2C7vH-hM1aGNsfcr5MmNaEepJAh69EroXCMyVQNFQ/s400/165704_184707158224602_8162777_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
You see, in the islands, community groups will organize small events like softball tournaments and music festivals and look for financial support from local politicians, the hardware store, the grocery store, and the neighborhood bar. The politicians and the businesses get some publicity, kids play softball, and everybody is happy.<br />
<br />
I used my Pew funded campaign budget to sponsor several of these events, including a dog show organized by a group of animal welfare advocates who were trying to teach island families to take better care of their pets. Here in the mainland we treat our pets like family, but in the islands, hmmm, not so much. Most of the dogs on the islands are called “boonie dogs” – mixed breeds that live very difficult lives.<br />
<br />
So this dog show was organized and prizes were given out in different categories including shortest legs, most lopsided ears, and worst behaved dog. The event, of course, was a smashing success, the kids were happy, the dogs went home with toys and treats, and I had the chance to talk to about 100 people about protecting the ocean.<br />
<br />
The thing is, and I didn’t know this at the time, Pew puts together a media report every day about the mentions of our aforementioned reports, polling, and campaigns and this goes to our chief executive officer. Actually, they put together a report twice a day.<br />
<br />
After the boonie dog show, the animal welfare advocates put out a press release thanking the local politicians, the hardware store, the grocery store, the neighborhood bar – and The Pew Charitable Trusts.<br />
<br />
I am told that the CEO looked at her report and asked, “why did we sponsor a dog show?”<br />
<br />
It was the first, and last dog show The Pew Charitable Trusts ever sponsored. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqKFPOfPILBzE2wcYFZPE8zBa6-Ie6n40BiphWSRvAblqgiFBmir28n8WqPi_OReGCkwOqUqWkA4ESNXS2mDmO0ZmxkH3E_PnzQmnSjfM-skdpDTymeFZ7C7OzdBeh4OD3aCtXw/s1600/170661_184708361557815_8159826_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqKFPOfPILBzE2wcYFZPE8zBa6-Ie6n40BiphWSRvAblqgiFBmir28n8WqPi_OReGCkwOqUqWkA4ESNXS2mDmO0ZmxkH3E_PnzQmnSjfM-skdpDTymeFZ7C7OzdBeh4OD3aCtXw/s400/170661_184708361557815_8159826_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
And that was my life for about a year. Working with the community, communicating with them in ways that they understood, and slowly grinding out support for protecting the ocean.<br />
<br />
Of course, before the end of his Administration, we were able to convince President Bush of the scientific and cultural significance of the Mariana Trench and showcased the overwhelming local support.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRgYJ0qzyfobmp3gkRgtutqAvOR9x7a2fzlPTsNlZ0QnFcHPcOZ5Ecx2VoGHNwLlCN4ac6Vp8cejbOCKmrX95138UWpF0x_EEnqhpmkdb8i_5nAtoWN9mHHxhMXw9vD58dnaRcQ/s1600/fitial+hugging+bush.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRgYJ0qzyfobmp3gkRgtutqAvOR9x7a2fzlPTsNlZ0QnFcHPcOZ5Ecx2VoGHNwLlCN4ac6Vp8cejbOCKmrX95138UWpF0x_EEnqhpmkdb8i_5nAtoWN9mHHxhMXw9vD58dnaRcQ/s400/fitial+hugging+bush.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
So in January 2009, I was able to join our governor in the White House to watch President George W. Bush designate the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3PJ2QuJWIDZ5mAseDR_htVrSsZJYCwRgNDdaLx0ryEV17pATqMK_d3q8WKXaemEpO3YaZdGnq-AOIA751shkC65WK5hPbQlUI1DA1lnra8lqakoiS_ixhdxIClvwvFR0BwAagQ/s1600/3588137453_d911d0b242_o+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3PJ2QuJWIDZ5mAseDR_htVrSsZJYCwRgNDdaLx0ryEV17pATqMK_d3q8WKXaemEpO3YaZdGnq-AOIA751shkC65WK5hPbQlUI1DA1lnra8lqakoiS_ixhdxIClvwvFR0BwAagQ/s400/3588137453_d911d0b242_o+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-39676926728112405162018-10-28T21:23:00.003-04:002018-11-04T19:15:38.988-05:00Help the Victims of Typhoon Yutu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcKHlT_t2bEZLYG5z7_3Or9B3CmuLCe_PnqKep5wknoRqBFWKGHtnZG9mq_m6PbH4mibj2kV31B7NcRgukIaU0-tPgg1NIQwFzb8iK9Dxpp849ZE8QddqezmvERZAwwweVW2C7Q/s1600/pacific-super-typhoon+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcKHlT_t2bEZLYG5z7_3Or9B3CmuLCe_PnqKep5wknoRqBFWKGHtnZG9mq_m6PbH4mibj2kV31B7NcRgukIaU0-tPgg1NIQwFzb8iK9Dxpp849ZE8QddqezmvERZAwwweVW2C7Q/s400/pacific-super-typhoon+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tinian suffered a direct hit from Typhoon Yutu.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On Thursday, October 25, Super Typhoon Yutu slammed into the islands of Saipan and Tinian packing sustained winds of 178 miles per hour. I won't rehash how bad the storm was. People need help.<br />
<br />
<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It's morning on Saipan and photos of Typhoon Yutu damage are starting to show up on social media. Notice how the storm ripped all the leaves off the trees -- that means the fruit (i.e. FOOD) are all gone, too. These were taken by my relative Jack Sablan. <a href="https://t.co/viJKWvAVzm">pic.twitter.com/viJKWvAVzm</a></div>
— Angelo Villagomez (@TaotaoTasi) <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1055199544848367616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</center>
<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2018/10/28/what-you-can-do-help-saipan-recover-typhoon-yutu/1797172002/" target="_blank">Pacific Daily News</a>, the newspaper of record on Guam, has a list of ways readers can help the victims. There is also a website <a href="http://yuturelief.com/">yuturelief.com</a>, that looks like it is run by various members of our diaspora. I encourage you to read both websites and see what method of donating works best for you.<br />
<br />
Here are my recommendations:<br />
<br />
<b>Ayuda Foundation</b><br />
I will make a donation to the Ayuda Foundation. They are a Guam based organization, run by Carlotta Leon Guerrero, a trusted former elected official who I work with on conservation issues across the Pacific. They have experience moving cargo and relief supplies across the Micronesia region. I consider them the local experts at helping people in my neck of the woods.<br />
<br />
I had a good chat with Carlotta about how they are going to help. She told me that they will likely engage for over two months, and she suggested I have a think about how I wanted to help. Right now, in the immediate aftermath people need shelter, water, medical supplies, generators, and food. In a few weeks, as the cleanup begins in earnest, people will need tarps, machetes, chainsaws, new candles, and batteries. And a few weeks after that the rebuilding will begin, and people will need cinder blocks, plywood, etc.<br />
<br />
Ayuda Foundation is collaborating with BankPacific on Guam to collect monetary and physical donations to provide basic necessities to residents in Saipan. Here is the address.<br />
<br />
Ayuda Foundation<br />
181 East Marine Corp Dr.<br />
Carl Rose Building #207<br />
Hagåtña, 96910 GU<br />
<br />
<b>American Red Cross</b><br />
If you are not familiar with Ayuda, you may feel more comfortable giving to a national organization. The Red Cross has been active on Saipan for decades. The national office will send disaster assistance -- has already sent it, in fact. But if I'm not mistaken, the Red Cross won't accept donations specifically for this disaster, but they will provide the "right" amount of resources. If you would like to donate to them, visit <a href="http://redcross.org/">redcross.org</a>, call 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.<br />
<br />
<b>Help on the Ground</b><br />
As of this writing, 176 groups or individuals have set up GoFundMe campaigns for Typhoon Yutu relief. I took a cursory glance at some of them and it looks like some people are raising money for themselves or loved ones, while others plan on donating to relief organizations. I don't pretend to know all of the people setting them up, but I do know some of them.<br />
<br />
Here are some of the folks I know and trust, and I believe a donation to them would be meaningful:<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/super-typhoon-yutu-relief-campaign" target="_blank">Marianas Young Professionals </a>are kind of like a local young chamber of commerce club. They are a relatively new organization, but are very active in the community and do lots of good work.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/rebuild-saipan-community-school" target="_blank">Saipan Community School </a>is a small, private baptist school that looks like it got pretty beat up in the storm. I've worked with some of their former teachers and administrations, and they are an important part of our community and could use your help.<br />
<br />
My friend <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/n6d5qq-typhoon-yutu-relief" target="_blank">Anna Rose</a> is raising money for her mom, Jane, who lost nearly everything. Jane has dedicated her life to helping the less fortunate, and I'm sure she'd appreciated a hand up in her time of need.</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-48171517877923787552018-10-04T08:40:00.001-04:002023-12-18T11:02:42.867-05:0040<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGE1ufyo2CYxMuUhqqL71S3h8RKkxU-Ut9U098PHPrEBxW3UUQ2lNt6ToJdLlmy4vQn6bTBH7SwPtiUmq8iT4kuZUDwfRrK7wRnxMdzA_c_3GMKkfv9ZOOveThGDeL_bbPyZXDxg/s1600/191044_1848987459399_550861_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1252" data-original-width="1564" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGE1ufyo2CYxMuUhqqL71S3h8RKkxU-Ut9U098PHPrEBxW3UUQ2lNt6ToJdLlmy4vQn6bTBH7SwPtiUmq8iT4kuZUDwfRrK7wRnxMdzA_c_3GMKkfv9ZOOveThGDeL_bbPyZXDxg/s320/191044_1848987459399_550861_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mikey looking surprised on the top left. I'm in the bowtie.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Last year I was scrolling though my Facebook feed and I saw that everyone in the family was wishing my cousin Mikey a happy fortieth birthday. The posts caught me off guard. If they ever made a Stranger Things about my life, my cousin Mikey would be the leader of our gang. In my mind Mikey is still a kid. How is he forty? Wait. If he's forty, that means I'm right behind him. How the hell did this happen?<br />
<br />
I remember turning ten. Hitting double digits was a pretty big deal. My mom gave me a Nintendo Entertainment System that year. It came with two controllers, the Zapper, and the Power Pad. The game cartridge had three games on it: Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and Track and Field. As a fifth grader my interests were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, baseball, collecting baseball cards, and collecting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.<br />
<br />
I remember turning thirteen. We lived in London that year and I was in the eighth form at Highgate Wood School. We'd only been in England for about a month and I didn't know a lot of the kids at school yet, so we celebrated as a small family in our flat. Mom gave me a birthday card with thirteen one-pound coins taped to the inside in the shape of a 13.<br />
<br />
I turned fourteen in Massachusetts and fifteen in Florida. I turned eighteen as a freshman at the University of Richmond and remember eating chocolate cake. I turned twenty-one my senior year and went out for teppanyaki with friends.<br />
<br />
At twenty five I was finishing up my degree at Rollins College and also a waiter at the Cheesecake Factory in Orlando. My car insurance dropped by half. I also started blogging that year, a habit I've (mostly) kept up ever since. It was also the year I started working in environmental politics, science communication, or whatever it is I've been doing for a living all these years.<br />
<br />
I turned thirty in Saipan while we were in the heat of trying to convince President George W. Bush to create the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. I celebrated with friends at Godfather's Bar. That is the year I met and started dating Edz.<br />
<br />
In my 30s I left the island and found moderate success in my career. I married the girl from the island. My car is paid off, but I have a mortgage. Ten years went by faster than I imagined it could. 29 seems like only yesterday.<br />
<br />
And tomorrow I join Mikey as a member of the over forty club.<br />
<br />
<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
This is what four decades of grilled pork and cheeseburgers followed by two months of light jogging and a day at the beach gets you <a href="https://t.co/tnSa54Up0Y">pic.twitter.com/tnSa54Up0Y</a></div>
— Angelo Villagomez (@TaotaoTasi) <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1036745068726677505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</center>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-18081079765310866342018-07-06T08:59:00.001-04:002018-07-06T08:59:33.580-04:00Marine Protected Areas: IUCN Global Standards for Success<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great event to launch the <a href="https://twitter.com/IUCN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@iucn</a> global MPA standards w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/SethHorstmeyer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SethHorstmeyer</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NinaBhola?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NinaBhola</a> Chris Santora, me, <a href="https://twitter.com/JaneLubchenco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JaneLubchenco</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/saltylance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@saltylance</a> giving remarks on their development and importance. <br>Thanks for attending!!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IMCC5?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IMCC5</a> <a href="https://t.co/8awKADsTJC">pic.twitter.com/8awKADsTJC</a></p>— Angelo Villagomez (@TaotaoTasi) <a href="https://twitter.com/TaotaoTasi/status/1011210653460131841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
Last week I got to give a short speech in front of a room full of ocean conservation leaders attending the International Marine Conservation Congress in Kuching, Malaysia to launch the IUCN Global Standards for Success -- that's the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Standards spell out what IUCN members have agreed needs to be in place for an area of ocean to be considered protected, and I was able to speak for two minutes on what they mean to the organization that employs me. A few other folks also gave speeches about what it means to their work: Seth Horstmeyer, Program Director, Oceans 5; Nina Bhola, Director, UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Christine Santora, Assistant Director for Policy and Outreach, Institute for Ocean Conservation Scienc; Jane Lubchenco, marine biologist, Oregon State University; and Lance Morgan, President, Marine Conservation Institute.<br><br>
This is an issue my employer has let me work on for almost two years now. Many have noticed that there are some marine protected areas out there that shouldn't really be called marine protected areas (for a number of reasons). In my own career, the Trench Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, which is also called the Mariana Trench National Wildlife Refuge, protects the benthic habitat in the deepest areas of the Mariana Trench -- but not the water column or the ecosystems and animals living above the sea floor. Since no marine habitat is protected, it shouldn't really be called a marine protected area. There are other marine protected areas, such as two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, that allow industrial levels of commercial fishing. That shouldn't really be called a marine protected area either, it's more of a fisheries management area.<br><br>
This creates a host of issues, from countries getting global recognition for protecting the ocean when they haven't actually done so, to citizens expecting benefits of marine protected areas, including there being more fish, bigger fish, and more fish biomass, but there not being any because the area isn't actually protected. As a result, some countries are claiming that they've met global targets for protecting the ocean (10% by 2020), when a closer look reveals that they really haven't.<br><br>
In response to this, several of my colleagues at Pew, along with some prominent scientists, wrote <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2018/02/cp_how_much_of_the_ocean_is_really_protected.pdf">recommendations to IUCN on how to improve their marine protected area classification</a>. My super smart co-worker Dr. Johnny Briggs broke it down in a blog '<a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/02/22/how-much-of-the-ocean-is-really-protected">How Much of the Ocean is Really Protected?</a>' The answer, of course, being not as much as we are being told. Several other groups and scientists have also been pointing out these issues, including the signatories to the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/pristine-seas/malta-declaration/">Malta Declaration</a>. And the Marine Conservation Institute has been tracking this issue on their <a href="http://www.mpatlas.org/">MPAtlas</a> for years.<br><br>
In response to these discussions, IUCN held a meeting of experts earlier this year to pull together existing information on how IUCN defines protected areas to help bring clarity to what it means to actually be 'protected.' The outcome of that process is what I spoke about at the launch last week. IUCN has posted their <a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/protected-areas/wcpa/what-we-do/marine/marine-protected-areas-global-standards-success">Global Standards for MPA Success</a> on their website (in three languages!) for managers, advocates, scientists, funders, and anyone else who cares about marine protected areas to use. The organization I work for has been helping to promote them, so <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/06/22/global-body-moves-to-help-countries-apply-marine-protection">I interviewed Mike Wong</a>, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ vice chair for the North American region, to discuss the process, what they mean, and how they can be used. And then in turn, while I was at the International Marine Conservation Congress <a href="http://www.speakupforblue.com/iucn-mpa-standards-with-angelo-villagomez">I was interviewed by Andrew Lewin for the Speak Up For the Blue podcast</a>.<br><br>
That I've been working on this kind of stuff might surprise some of my readers (both of you) because I feel like I'm better known for the work I've done in small communities to pass environmental policy. Well, this isn't exactly policy, but a lot of the principles are the same: working with partners, listening to concerns, and building towards consensus. Anyway, thought this work might be of interest, and I shared a bunch of links where you can read up more on the issue. Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-3890766805953462312018-06-29T22:29:00.000-04:002018-07-03T08:00:47.663-04:005th International Marine Conservation Congress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container tr_bq" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXANhVMMsIDT_cjMLV5Rs82Z7bsW69vvu0AGHaAOerb1KLfduzdTolst6rWgC1b5UTKQ-2b6lBcei2pAUzRQ4S_1HILkFuYLKc6OWg3lcoITKRYtoZu8M-Uxo2xQHFcnxG7mhTQ/s1600/proposed+mariana+trench.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1177" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXANhVMMsIDT_cjMLV5Rs82Z7bsW69vvu0AGHaAOerb1KLfduzdTolst6rWgC1b5UTKQ-2b6lBcei2pAUzRQ4S_1HILkFuYLKc6OWg3lcoITKRYtoZu8M-Uxo2xQHFcnxG7mhTQ/s400/proposed+mariana+trench.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The monument as proposed in 2008 was very different from what was declared in 2009.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm finishing up a great week in Kuching, Malaysia having attended the 5th International Marine Conservation Congress. I didn't get to all of them, but I tried to participate in as many shark and marine protected area sessions as physically possible (several were taking place simultaneously in different conference rooms). Notably, I was in the MPA forum led by Jane Lubchenco, the MPA mapping focus group led by Lance Morgan and several others, and I was a speaker in the first ever IMCC Deep Sea Symposium, which was organized by Diva Amon and Andrew Thaler. I spoke of my experiences with the Mariana Trench and streamed our entire symposium on Facebook (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarianaMonument/videos/2185709341457697/" target="_blank">and you can watch it here</a>). I've pasted the text of my talk below.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Policy in the Deepest Sea</b><br />
Hello everybody, thank you for coming to my talk on deep sea environmental policy and the Mariana trench.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<br />
Megalodon, the largest shark to ever live, has been spotted in the Mariana Trench. No, I’m just kidding. This is a Jason Statham movie coming out in August.<br />
<br />
For those of you on Twitter, this would be a good opportunity to tag David Shiffman in a post. Maybe mention mermaids in your tweet.<br />
<br />
But all kidding aside, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench there is a huge portal where giant monsters called Kaiju enter from another dimension to attack earth.<br />
<br />
Our only defense are giant fighting robots. Oh wait, no, that was the movie Pacific Rim. Again, I’m joking. But I mention these movies to highlight that there is something enigmatic and magical about the Mariana Trench. Most people have heard of it, but can they find it on a map? Do they know about the people who live there? I venture that they don’t, so today I’m going to tell you the REAL story of the Mariana Trench.<br />
<br />
I was born in a small village on an island next to the Mariana Trench. Here I am harassing a small island critter, a rite of passage for young island boys.<br />
<br />
The Mariana Trench got its name from our islands, which in turn got their name from the Spanish queen who decided our lives would be better if we were Catholic.<br />
<br />
The Islands lie in the western pacific where the Pacific Ocean meets the Philippine Sea, east of the Philippines and South of Japan. They stretch from Guam in the south up about 400 miles to Uracus in the North.<br />
<br />
The Mariana Trench runs south and east of the islands. The deepest point is southwest of Guam – called Challenger Deep -- and then it arcs east and then north along the point where the Pacific plate – containing the oldest seabed on the planet – slides underneath the Philippine plate.<br />
<br />
I don’t think there is any disagreement that THE MARIANA TRENCH IS THE MOST ICONIC DEEPSEA ECOSYSTEM ON THE PLANET. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
At its deepest point the Mariana Trench is just shy of 11 kilometers. This is a mile deeper than Mt. Everest is high. While much of the focus is rightfully on the trench itself, this is a region of incredible underwater geographic diversity, with deep sea, vents, volcanoes, and seamounts, but also islands, coral reefs, and incredibly, places with both vents and coral reefs – one of the few places this occurs.<br />
<br />
There may not be giant sharks or aliens,but there are big sharks, small sharks, and things that look a lot like aliens. And of course robots. See what I did there?<br />
<br />
The world’s deepest living fish was recorded in the Mariana Trench last year. Andrew tells this story better than me, so I’ll let him do it during the Q&A.<br />
<br />
There are 29 species of marine mammals in this area, with very high beaked whale diversity – a family of whales that we know almost nothing about. The beaked whales highlight part of what I think makes the Mariana Trench so exciting.<br />
<br />
This is a place that has been visited by literally three people: Don Walsh, Jacques Piccard <br />
and James Cameron. There have been more people on the surface of the moon than at the bottom of the Mariana Trench – and there have been more robots crawling the surface of Mars than have been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.<br />
<br />
As an aside, Star Trek Enterprise Captain Jean Luc Piccard gets his name from the Mariana Trench. Can I get a show of hands of people who knew that?<br />
<br />
Globally, estimates are that there are over 2.2 million UNDISCOVERED species living in the ocean , many in the deep sea. To put that number in perspective, science to date has described only 2 million species. Many of these new species will be found on seamounts and sea vents, and the Mariana Trench offers these up by the scores, if not hundreds. There are lifetimes of discovers to be made in this region and in other deep sea areas. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
So what else is down there?<br />
<br />
The sad truth, is that we may never know because HUMAN IMPACTS HAVE REACHED THE MARIANA TRENCH </blockquote>
<blockquote>
We’ve reached the point in human history where we can extract resources from every inch of the ocean, and at every depth. When Dr. Amon was exploring the Mariana Trench, her team found this beer can and also this can of SPAM. A few years ago a Japanese team found a plastic bag.<br />
<br />
These waters also deal with the same fishing pressures as the rest of the world – from small to large.
And sadly, we have political leaders who can’t wait to sell the seafloor to anyone who is willing to mine it.
So what can we do about? There has been a lot of talk about marine protected areas at this conference, and what it means to be a protected area. And this is a tool that has been applied to the Mariana Trench, but before I get into that I want to give a little background on the history of conservation in the islands. [SLIDE]
The first major point I want to make with this talk is that DISCOVERY LEADS TO PROTECTION </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I imagine that most people in this room believe that conservation should be based on science. After all, that’s why we’re all here at this convention!<br />
<br />
But it is important to remember that science is not the only reason for protecting biodiversity. There are other reasons, too, and while it is best to be informed by science, ultimately conservation will come down to values.<br />
<br />
As an example, let me tell you how the first environmental protections in the Marianas came about.<br />
<br />
In the early 1970s, after nearly 450 years of colonialism, the people of the Marianas were trying to decide what form of colonialism they would enjoy next. Having lived through Spanish, German, and Japanese administrations, we decided on the United States. As we were developing our new territorial government, we sent a team to visit all of the habited and uninhabited islands to take an inventory. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The team – which included scientists -- returned from their expedition with tales of the wonders of the Island of Maug, which is an active volcano where only the rim peaks above the waves, creating a lagoon surrounded by three small islets (kind of like the volcano from that Pixar Short). The recommendations were basically OH MY GOD THIS ISLAND IS SO COOL WE HAVE TO PROTECT IT. I paraphrased a bit there.<br />
As a result – the framers of our constitution – including my father – enshrined the entire island as a nature reserve. At the time this had nothing to do with the Mariana Trench – but it was the action around which all future marine protected areas and terrestrial protected areas were based on.<br />
<br />
Over the years, as the benefits of protection came to be understood, the protections grew, and other islands were added as nature reserves. Uracus. Asuncion. Sarigan. Guguan. Then in 1983 President Reagan declared the American EEZ, and the Mariana Trench came under American jurisdiction.<br />
<br />
In 2009, President George W. Bush designated the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.<br />
<br />
I led the community effort to get the designation, running a grassroots campaign that was ultimately successful<br />
<br />
Here I am at the signing with some conservation heroes<br />
<br />
However, I want to point out the difference between what we asked for, which was a large marine protected area, managed by NOAA sanctuaries, around the islands that our people had for decades decided were important to conservation to what was declared, which was a medium sized marine protected area around those islands and then a benthic protected area for the deepest parts of the mariana trench, plus some benthic protections around 21 undersea volcanoes. This action effectively protected the deepest part of our planet from bottom trawling and deep sea mining. Rather than having sanctuaries manage the area, this is all managed by US Fish and Wildlife and NOAA fisheries. Listening to the experts in Washington, DC over the advice of the local people has led to a whole host of problems. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
10 years since the designation, the implementation has been a disaster. The federal manager, US fish and wildlife service still hasn’t hired a staffer on Saipan and still haven’t put out a management plan. This has created a lot of frustration in the community because the expectations they had at the time of designation have not been met. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Despite the failings in management, the protection of the Mariana Trench has led to increased global interest in the Mariana Trench.<br />
<br />
This leads to the second point of my talk: PROTECTION LEADS TO DISCOVERY<br />
Japanese, Chinese, and American research teams – including my second favorite Trini marine biologist and future Star Trek Captain -- have been visiting the region in record numbers and this is leading to new scientific discoveries.<br />
<br />
This has increased our understanding of the region, and has strengthened the case for the need for conservation and to improve the management of the Mariana Trench. In 2016, Dr. Amon and Dr. Thaler helped write papers that were submitted to the Obama Administration to make the case for a Mariana Trench National Marine Sanctuary. The nomination was accepted by the Trump Administration in March 2017, and awaits action. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
As more research takes place and as more data is collected, I believe this will only make our case stronger. So just to recap, conservation has been taking for 40 years in this part of the world, and our first attempt at protecting the Trench isn’t going so well, but we have policy ideas, but the politics make them difficult to implement.<br />
<br />
That this should be easy and that it is not is a cautionary tale for protecting the rest of planet’s deep sea. Some scientists have criticized the Mariana Trench protections as low hanging fruit, saying that we protected a place that had no fishing, where there was no political opposition. One would think that the most iconic deep sea habitat on the planet would be easy to protect, but I assure you, it is not.<br />
<br />
Thank you.
</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-59933483143209214392018-06-07T09:29:00.001-04:002021-02-03T11:14:33.521-05:00Large Marine Protected Areas and the New York Times<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the years, the New York Times Editorial Board has been very vocal about their support for large marine protected areas . They often cite the precedent setting work of past presidents, the historical bi-partisanship nature of American environmental legislation, and important scientific research in their pieces. Their call to action over the years has been a powerful tool in the fight to save our planet.<br />
<br />
In May of 2000, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order to “strengthen protection of ocean and coastal resources by creating a comprehensive network of ‘marine protected areas.” This set the stage for George W. Bush’s designation of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in 2006. The Editorial Board praised Bush’s work as an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/opinion/16fri2.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-editorials">exemplary use of presidential power</a>” and urged him to continue his work designating protected areas.<br />
<br />
Two years later, when President Bush was considering protections for other proposed sites, the NYT Editorial Board once again weighed in on the subject stating that it would be “an achievement for the ages” and adding the direct call to action, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/opinion/03wed2.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-editorials">All we can say is: Go for it, Mr. President</a>.” This was soon followed by the declaration of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument.<br />
<br />
The Editorial Board wasted no time in calling on President Barack Obama to expand Papahanaumokuakea a few weeks before he was inaugurated in January 2009. They stated that Obama “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/opinion/07wed1.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-editorials">should expand the monuments to the 200-mile limit and give them full protection against fishing and other exploitation</a>.”<br />
<br />
Throughout the rest of President Obama’s two terms, the Editorial Board continued to show their support for the creation of large marine protected areas. After Dr. Graham Edgar’s landmark study identifying the five key features of successful MPAs was published in 2014, the Editorial Board wrote: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/to-save-fish-and-birds.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-editorials">Marine protected areas are a clearly positive trend, a reflection of the growing awareness of governments across the globe that the oceans and their bounty are not limitless or indestructible</a>.”<br />
<br />
As President Obama’s second term in office reached its final years, the Editorial Board revisited the idea of expanding Papahanaumokuakea in the opinion “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/opinion/monuments-for-future-generations.html">Monuments for Future Generations</a>”. They expounded on the need to expand Papahanaumokuakea and to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.<br />
<br />
But now that there is a new president, they write that we are facing "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/looting-americas-public-lands.html">The Looting of America's Public Lands</a>." Sad.</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-62676116151310090782018-05-16T10:21:00.000-04:002018-05-16T10:21:13.952-04:00Hafa Gachong: U.S. Senate Approves Covenant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://amzn.to/2IheE0V" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzIhxIwDlv01RIyPTVO0oAW7sGbalwAUObg51BxeYT7hu3LIqjDgg859-txDbupk3piduxLRYKCTaX6u5DAIzXEAhuSXwxbZR6lXIZUp0HQSzqPjG3kjix_Q-qPOzgurYvW96Mg/s200/hafa+gachong.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
The Northern Mariana Islands government recently approved the creation of a Second Marianas Political Status Commission. The purpose of the commission is to re-evaluate and re-assess the relationship with the existing colonial power and to determine whether or not our people want to remain as a territory owned by, but not part of the United States. The commission is controversial in the community, and I support it, but think it could be improved.<br />
<br />
So what do I think? The United States should not have colonies. It goes against everything our values stand for. I don't mean the cynical values ascribed to the United States by liberals, like military domination, consumerism, and capitalism, I mean the idealistic values outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I think it is right and good for Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands to internally assess their political situation to decide if the situation is working for our respective people.<br />
<br />
With that said, I think the political status commission on Saipan could have been designed to represent the people better. All of the members were appointed by the current governor and I do not believe the full membership represents our community, or has any enough expertise regarding the issues of decolonization, history, or government. I think the membership should be expanded and the members should be elected, not selected.<br />
<br />
For some historical context on how the Northern Marianas became a Commonwealth in political union with the United States, I offer a letter from my father penned in 1976 days after the Covenant was approved by the U.S. Senate. It is part of the collection of his letters contained within <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2IheE0V">Hafa Gachong: Letters to the Commonwealth</a></i>.<br />
<blockquote>
<i>February 27, 1976</i><br />
This is a time to rejoice and a time to celebrate. It is a time to laugh and a time to cry. Congratulations to the people of the Marianas for acquiring what they were made to believe they wanted and congratulations to the United States of America for successfully acquiring a new territory; a small territory which will support and strengthen its military power and influence in the Pacific World and the Far East.
<br />
<br />
For the people of the Marianas, let us extend a warm congratulations for the many things which they can now be proud of. They can be proud that two-thirds of Tinian, part of Saipan and the whole island north of Saipan now belong to the U.S. military. These lands will be reserved for contingent U.S. military installations and activities. Lord, pray for us.<br />
<br />
The people of the Marianas can be proud that they have become a minority out of 220,000,000 people rather than a minority out of 100,000 people.<br />
<br />
Similarly, they can be proud for becoming second-class citizens under a strange flag rather than noble citizens under their previous native flag. I am sure that they cherish more the concept of being inferior to the “mainlanders” than superior to the “district people.”<br />
<br />
It is common knowledge that the people of the Marianas believe themselves to be superior to the people from other districts of Micronesia and inferior to Americans.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, the people of the Marianas can be proud that they are now not represented in their national legislature (U.S. Congress) as they were in the Congress of Micronesia.<br />
<br />
Whereas, Saipan was the capital of Micronesia, now it is a military stop-over; way out in the Pacific Ocean and only a handful of people ever get to see their great capital, the District of Columbia.<br />
<br />
Whereas, the people of the Marianas had priority to any employment before becoming a commonwealth of the U.S., now they do not. Any qualified U.S. citizen is equally entitled to any job in the Marianas as the citizens thereof.<br />
<br />
The people of the Marianas can be proud of that. It means that many Marianas citizens will get skinned alive when competing for jobs.<br />
<br />
However, the people of the Marianas can obviously see something in the commonwealth status which is worth more than anything else. They can see MONEY ($).<br />
<br />
Money has to be the most important and powerful thing for them. It is more important than brotherhood or sisterhood or family relationship. It is more important than love or religion.<br />
<br />
It is MONEY which is breaking up homes and family ties on our small islands. It is greed for MONEY which is turning our people cold and bitter. It is greed for money which has caused our people to forget who they are, what is their identity, and to beg for commonwealth status. That they can be proud of and be congratulated for.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, it is money which our people have been praying for, and it is money which they are about to receive. Thanks to Uncle Sam. It is money which he has plenty of, and it is money with which he has purchased us.<br />
<br />
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-83539443534731662082018-05-12T17:27:00.004-04:002020-10-23T14:58:36.705-04:00Hafa Gachong: Letters to the Commonwealth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrqDhhd6uNTXnD8Dy7DU0qzZlBGLlA5lK1hBGAPsTTVs2pEhSLrm5MAXX3yeLu0TLpEg2ZuUtvc3-YxjzfCDbZw34kAxWd9x-tNXWcnPkYA2trDQ48LeuFIcn61B0j9T2ecVKhg/s1600/20180511_091549.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1104" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrqDhhd6uNTXnD8Dy7DU0qzZlBGLlA5lK1hBGAPsTTVs2pEhSLrm5MAXX3yeLu0TLpEg2ZuUtvc3-YxjzfCDbZw34kAxWd9x-tNXWcnPkYA2trDQ48LeuFIcn61B0j9T2ecVKhg/s400/20180511_091549.JPG" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supreme Court Justice Ramon Garrido Villagomez, my dad.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I published some of my dad's old letters today. You can get a copy of <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3mi3E72">Hafa Gachong: Letters to the Commonwealth</a></i> on Amazon. The collection includes 71 letters that he wrote between 1972 and 1979 and includes a couple of photos from that time. I'll post a few of the letters on this blog in the coming months.<br />
<br />
Here's the short intro I wrote for the book. I decided to keep it short:<br />
<blockquote>
My dad died way too young. For everything that he accomplished in his 50 years, that’s the story of his life. I was only 21 when he had the heart attack. He never fully recovered, never spoke again, and eventually passed five years later. I wish he was the one sharing these letters with you. In fact, I wish he was still writing them. The next best thing is for me to share them with you.<br />
<br />
Dad was a prolific writer. Later in life, when he was a Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands Supreme Court Justice and Chair of the Board of Regents of the Northern Mariana Islands College, his words carried heft. They were deliberate. The whole community read them and heeded his words. Early in his career? Not so much. <br />
<br />
He wrote his first letter to the editor in September, 1972, about 2 weeks shy of his 23rd birthday. He was already a young father at the time, supporting a small family. He was about to head to law school in Washington, DC.<br />
<br />
His early letters intrigue me. It is not common in our culture for people in their twenties to put their opinions out into the public realm so freely. Nobody cares what you have to say until you are in your forties. There are a few young folk who follow in his footsteps today, myself included, but back then this was unheard of. Despite his age, his writings fell on fertile ears. Family members still talk to me today about the letters they remember reading in the 1970s. As of this writing, that was forty years ago. It is not a stretch to suggest that his letters have had an impact on life in the Commonwealth today, just as they did back then. Amazingly enough, many of the issues he ponders still persist in the community.<br />
<br />
In this book I’ve compiled most of his letters from the 1970s, starting with his first letter in 1972 as a young man about to head off to law school, to letters in 1979 when he is a practicing attorney, raising his second family (that’s where I come into the story).<br />
<br />
I present his letters in somewhat of a jumble, but there is an order to my madness. His early letters are written from the point of view of a law student, so I offer those first. To be honest, they aren’t very good. You can tell that his writing improves as you read each successive lettr. Many of his writings are political, and from my reading, often petty. Like, really petty. I try to put those into one section to separate them from what I consider the historically important ones. The last three sections deal with the Covenant, the Constitution, and finally the Commonwealth, issues he inserted himself right into the middle of.<br />
<br />
Dad was vehemently against approving the Covenant. He saw himself as a Micronesian, and wanted to remain a citizen of the nascent Micronesian nation. He did not want to give up his identify and the sovereignty of his people to become a powerless minority within the much larger American family. <br />
<br />
Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Marianas knows he lost that battle. So as not to be excluded from the forming of the new government, he ran as a delegate to the first Northern Mariana Islands Constitutional Convention and won. He would later run for a seat in the Senate and lose. <br />
<br />
My mother tells me that many of his letters were written while sitting at his desk in his law office, crafting his arguments on endless reams of yellow legal pads. In these letters he writes about historical events from the founding of the Commonwealth from a perspective that is increasingly forgotten in the Marianas today.<br />
<br />
He made a lot of predictions in his writings. Some of what he wrote has come true, some has not. One important insight I gleamed from his letters is that our people have forgotten that we are culturally and geographically part of Micronesia, even if we are temporarily controlled by the United States. The decolonize movement has barely reached the shores of the Northern Marianas, but it is growing. There are American citizens living in our islands who think it is un-American for America to have colonies in the 21st Century. I hope that these letters will speak to those people, and provide historical context for how the unique relationship between the Commonwealth and the United States developed.<br />
<br />
I wish my Dad were around today to talk to us about these things, but he’s not. These letters are the next best thing.<br />
<br />
Angelo O’Connor Villagomez<br />
May 10, 2018</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-90532352374682865582018-05-11T16:17:00.004-04:002018-05-11T16:17:52.163-04:00Famous at Pew<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We get weekly e-mail updates at work about the cool things our organization does. This year they started doing little interviews to help get to know the staff better. Each week they highlight someone from the different programs. This is a few months old now (you'd only know that if you worked at Pew), but thought I'd share it. The photo was taken inside the Kirimati Island Lagoon last year while I was attending the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures meeting.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddRgXQl865OP1vTueVCjjxgIkcEhQbICvKxjVkfUMma45Ndb4bs9m3gVOSxP2C9P4eYJ4xKD19xK4YWHcuXmPntZtH1U7ffrskfoDo5FLeO8q9NnGU1Ivb1dmDt_QOK5k7jTgCw/s1600/angelo+headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddRgXQl865OP1vTueVCjjxgIkcEhQbICvKxjVkfUMma45Ndb4bs9m3gVOSxP2C9P4eYJ4xKD19xK4YWHcuXmPntZtH1U7ffrskfoDo5FLeO8q9NnGU1Ivb1dmDt_QOK5k7jTgCw/s320/angelo+headshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #31859c;">Before you were at Pew, what did you do</span>?</i> I ran
an NGO on Saipan called the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance and a community
environmental coalition called Beautify CNMI (short for Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands). Mostly I organized beach cleanups, tree
plantings, and other environmentally themed community events. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #31859c;">What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?</span></i><span style="color: #31859c;"> </span>I’d like to visit Africa (climb Kilimanjaro) and
Antarctica, so I can say I’ve been to all 7 continents.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">What’s the farthest you’ve ever been
from home</span></i><span style="background: white;">? Maug Lagoon in the Mariana
Trench Marine National Monument and Kirimati Island in the Line Islands are the
most isolated places I’ve ever been, but measured by distance it’s probably
Australia, New Zealand, or Chile. In addition to Saipan and DC, I’ve lived in
Florida, Massachusetts, Japan, and the UK, so I call several places home.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">What book impacted you the most?</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;"> </span><span style="background: white;">I read ‘Stupid White Men’ by Michael Moore on an airplane between the UK
and USA, the week before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. I was
already an activist at heart, but that book inspired me to get involved in
local politics. One campaign led to the next and here I am sitting at
Pew. And also Harry Potter. I’m a Ravenclaw.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">What fad or trend do you hope comes
back?</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;"> </span><span style="background: white;">Dad bods.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">What do you wish you knew more about?</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;"> </span><span style="background: white;">Other
languages. I’ve tried and failed to learn French, Spanish, Japanese, and
Chamorro over the years.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">Who has impressed you most with what
they’ve accomplished?</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;"> </span><span style="background: white;">My mom. She raised two energetic boys by
herself, while working full time.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;">What are you absolutely determined to
do?</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #31859c;"> </span><span style="background: white;">Get back to the islands. I’ll take typhoons and
volcanoes over bomb cyclones and polar vortexes any day.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wordsection1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #31859c;">Any parting wise words that you would share with the
team?</span></i><span style="color: #31859c;"> </span>If you make friends with my
wife at the Starbucks down the street, she might give you free coffee.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-4293162118852833282018-04-26T12:10:00.002-04:002018-04-26T12:14:58.142-04:00Our Northern Islands: A Look Back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBepYlIRDVwI83zFEnxhDHM_b5v6OB3_GaNymPuz7UM0-PDhmHRW1Fx8cNJPbqEL96r9wtNeKARzm7ygeGIBauJJaFMsVSPkY8Xpmz4DjgUhi_RcfIrAFJjuJfVBtT8La47fPCQ/s1600/Dbaf4ZwVQAAp4fz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBepYlIRDVwI83zFEnxhDHM_b5v6OB3_GaNymPuz7UM0-PDhmHRW1Fx8cNJPbqEL96r9wtNeKARzm7ygeGIBauJJaFMsVSPkY8Xpmz4DjgUhi_RcfIrAFJjuJfVBtT8La47fPCQ/s400/Dbaf4ZwVQAAp4fz.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robot workshop participants last week in Saipan.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A robot workshop run by Dr. Andrew Thaler and Dr. Stacy Baez just concluded on Saipan (follow along on <a href="https://openexplorer.nationalgeographic.com/expedition/cnmi">National Geographic</a> -- yes, that National Geographic!). Some may have thought the primary goal of the workshop was to build robots, but it was really to inspire a sense of wonder and imagination in local kids and to get them thinking about careers in exploration and science. Three western white dudes have dove to the depths of the Mariana Trench. Who will be the first Chamorro? And what island will she be from?<br />
<br />
In my work in conservation I've come to realize that discovery often follows protection. There is no better example than the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/MarianaMonument/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1592825360746101">NOAA Okeanos Explorer</a>, which in recent years has explored the depths of the Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll, Pacific Remote Islands, and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monuments.<br />
<br />
But there is also another type of discovery that happens. There is a discovery of self. A discovery that we've been living with a bad case of ocean wealth blindness. A discovery of who we are and our place in this world.<br />
<br />
This has certainly been my experience. My journey with the protection of the Mariana Trench has consumed my entire life. It's consumed my family members and my island community. It's been stressful at times, but looking back on the journey it has certainly been worth it.<br />
<br />
I realized this last night after rereading <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2I32KIz">Our Northern Islands</a></i>, the travelogue of then 18-year old Saipan native Dennis Chan. Man, what a great storyteller that kid is. I thought I'd post my intro to his book on this blog because I think it's good - and might inspire you to read his story. Oftentimes I read something I wrote long ago and think it's terrible. This is not one of those things.<br />
<blockquote>
The mostly-uninhabited volcanic islands north of Saipan are known collectively as the Northern Islands. Awash in an area of ocean the size of Texas and stretching like a string of beads between Saipan and Iwo To, each of the 10 islands are so small that their combined land surface is smaller than that of Washington, DC. There are no ports, the only runway was smothered by a lava flow, and typhoons strike frequently. Needless to say, the Northern Islands are one of the most remote, least visited places remaining on the planet.<br />
<br />
The Northern Islands, from South to North, are: Farallon de Medinilla (used by the United States military as a bombing range), Anatahan (actively erupting since 2003), Sarigan (a terrestrial wildlife sanctuary), Guguan (also a terrestrial wildlife sanctuary), Alamagan, Pagan, Agrigan (these three have historically supported settlements), Asuncion, Maug, and Uracas (these three are also terrestrial wildlife sanctuaries). With the exception of Farallon de Medinilla, which is an outcropping of limestone 80 meters above sea level and barely larger than Times Square, all of the islands are volcanic. Most of them erupt regularly.<br />
<br />
The islands are home to a number of unique animals, including mangrove monitor lizards, Marianas fruitbats, and giant coconut crabs, the world’s largest living land arthropod. The islands are also important nesting grounds for seabirds. <br />
<br />
The surrounding waters are spectacular. The only cetacean survey ever made in the area found 19 species of whales and dolphins, including several species of rare beaked whales. The coral reefs dotted around the islands rival rainforests in their species diversity, containing over 250 species of coral and 700 species of fish.<br />
<br />
The reason nature is still abundant in the Northern Islands is because they are rarely visited. Although living in relative proximity to the Northern Islands, the people on the populated islands of Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam rarely go there. My father took me there when I was 16, and on that visit we only went to Anatahan. Up until very recently, it was my one and only visit.<br />
<br />
That is not to say that I didn’t want to go; the opportunity just never presented itself. In fact, I have dreamed of going there all my life. I grew up hearing stories about those islands from my parents and visions of adventure swirled in my head as I waited for my chance to go. And I
was not alone. It is a dream of every Chamorro to visit those islands and it is a badge of pride for those who have.<br />
<br />
A group of people started planning for a visit to the Northern Islands in early 2009. That January, then-President George W. Bush had invoked the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create a marine protected area surrounding the three northernmost islands of Asuncion, Maug and Uracas. Before
its creation, the proposed ocean park had been a topic of great discussion within the community and I had been a part of its making as the Saipan coordinator of Pew Environment Group’s Global Ocean Legacy Campaign. I was the lead organizer in charge of building local support. I spent thebetter part of 2008 organizing a team of over 100 volunteers and supporters to collect signatures, write letters, and attend meetings.<br />
<br />
On the day the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument was created it became one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, but the only people who had been there in recent years were US government scientists and illegal Taiwanese fishing vessels. I, along with some of my
colleagues with the Friends of the Mariana Trench Monument, wanted to go see the world’s newest ocean park.<br />
<br />
The only problem was that we had no experience in undertaking such an expedition, no money, and no boat. The story of how we found a boat and came up with the money might be better left for another book, but one of the sources we found for funding was with a member of the Friends of the Monument who wanted to fund the trip of a local young person. The funder wanted this young person to experience the Northern Islands
in the hopes that they would return to Saipan (or Tinian or Rota) and share that experience with their peers.<br />
<br />
On July 10, 2009, the Friends of the Monument announced an essay contest with the theme, “Why I want to visit the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.” We received entries from as far away as Belgium, but ultimately decided on the essay of 18-year old Dennis Chan. Dennis was a recent
graduate of Marianas High School and had just recently participated in an environmental summer camp on Tinian. He was born and raised on Saipan and by all accounts was the very definition of local.<br />
<br />
Two weeks later, as Dennis boarded the Lady Carolina on the day we were to embark, I handed him a small notebook I had picked up at the local bookstore. I told him to write down everything. <i>Our Northern Islands</i> is pulled directly from Dennis’ daily entries into that notebook, written while sitting on a rock in Maug, swaying side to side on the deck of the <i>Lady Carolina</i>, and on the shores of Pagan and Agrigan,
swatting flies between paragraphs.<br />
<br />
<i>Our Northern Islands</i> is a record of the first expedition to the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. Dennis Chan came along so that he could share that experience with the rest of the world. This book is the result. Enjoy.<br />
<br />
Angelo Villagomez<br />
August 15, 2010</blockquote>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-7367638111998301852018-04-19T17:27:00.002-04:002018-07-03T08:07:02.732-04:00Alumni Achievement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExV0ME98gaZxj-4AZmbE9XcdEtr27tyuABSeh0GhQKkuSq4_4Is9hhHgOi5Tvq6NKqWB-BjQYWiYczVlyCkgGl1fJ4VlCN2RR8mJHN_tx6Fd9l4Bv_bkiNcAX4d8tYExyX0Jm7g/s1600/DZAlFVXV4AEVnO9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExV0ME98gaZxj-4AZmbE9XcdEtr27tyuABSeh0GhQKkuSq4_4Is9hhHgOi5Tvq6NKqWB-BjQYWiYczVlyCkgGl1fJ4VlCN2RR8mJHN_tx6Fd9l4Bv_bkiNcAX4d8tYExyX0Jm7g/s400/DZAlFVXV4AEVnO9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Last month the crazy people at Rollins College recognized me with an alumni award for my work in conservation since graduating in 2004. That's me standing between Oakland Mayor and Liberal Icon Libby Schaaf and U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer at the awards ceremony. Not quite sure how I got into this group, but thankful for my friends and colleagues who continue to say nice things about me behind my back. Edz <a href="https://www.facebook.com/twinkledz/videos/a.1772551166098817.1073741922.100000318535323/1773997975954136/">posted video</a> of my academic advisor introducing me at the ceremony, but I think you can only view it if you are friends with her on Facebook.<br />
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-56385999597376657182018-03-30T11:22:00.000-04:002018-04-02T18:57:20.758-04:00Monuments, Sanctuaries, and the Mariana Trench<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxPPfFqiRUkuRTJ0VbBHvBLrHr115jQ6d8x8tguITyN1E0JCySH7FVD76CTG2u8YuKLlpfQy5pRq57Q_TNFdRRlcMs7qM9PphO2_i2hvDcQHMtg6L2wsGI_LOkckmMUM6XXGN0A/s1600/mt_white.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxPPfFqiRUkuRTJ0VbBHvBLrHr115jQ6d8x8tguITyN1E0JCySH7FVD76CTG2u8YuKLlpfQy5pRq57Q_TNFdRRlcMs7qM9PphO2_i2hvDcQHMtg6L2wsGI_LOkckmMUM6XXGN0A/s400/mt_white.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
There are three important conservation and management issues facing the Mariana Trench today. I do not mean threats like fishing, plastic pollution, and climate change, but rather issues of governance, politics, and management. They are somewhat separate issues, but you cannot understand one without also knowing the context of the others. Let me explain. But first, some background:<br />
<br />
The Mariana Trench Marine National Monument was <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2009/01/george-w-bush-on-marianas-archipelago.html?view=magazine">declared by President George W. Bush in 2009</a> in the waning days of his administration. I spent the better part of two years advocating for the monument’s creation, and was one of the lucky few invited to witness its signing. Despite some early controversy, at the moment of the signing, the islands’ leaders and citizens were united and elated in their support for protecting the ocean. Former CNMI Governor <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/03/addressing-monumental-frustrations.html?q=fitial+hug">Benigno Fitial famously gave President George W. Bush a big hug</a>.<br />
<br />
Sadly, the good times would not last.<br />
<br />
In the hours before the signing, a White House official called into the Harry Blalock radio show on Saipan, along with the former CNMI House Speaker, Senate President, and Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. The official promised listeners three things would come out of the designation of the monument. First, the CNMI would gain control of submerged lands from shore out to three miles for the first time. Second, the monument declaration would give the local government co-management along with the federal government over the entire monument. And finally, he promised the monument would result in a visitors center for the island.<br />
<br />
The day after the signing, when we saw the text of the decree for the first time, it was apparent that things were not going to be so easy. It was clear from the start the governance of the monument was deeply flawed and would cause lots of problems. For example, nowhere in the decree is “co-management” mentioned, rather all decisions were to be made “in consultation with” the local government.<br />
<br />
The community had been led to believe that the White House was considering a large, highly protected area based measure that would be managed by the Department of Commerce’s NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. This was the proposal put forward by The Friends of the Monument which was outlined in their <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2008/10/vision-statement-open-letter-to.html">October 2008 Vision Statement</a>. Instead, Bush created a much smaller monument, mostly unprotected, that would be managed by the Department of Interior’s United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The fish in the monument would continue to be managed by the Department of Commerce’s NOAA Fisheries (in line with the decree language). <br />
<br />
It matters which government agency manages an area. I think most people know there is a fundamental difference between a national park, a national wildlife refuge, and a national forest. All have trees within their borders, but the agencies have very different mandates, goals, budgets, and influence within the government. The same is true for the agencies that manage the ocean. These are broad descriptions, but NOAA Fisheries is all about catching fish. USFWS is mainly an enforcement agency, whereas NOAA Sanctuaries has a focus on outreach, education, and interpretation. When considering the needs of the CNMI community, NOAA Sanctuaries is the best fit. Yet they were not included in the management of the monument. A visitors center is also not likely under the current governance.<br />
<br />
There are some bright spots, though. The Islands Unit, the 42,000 sq km area around the northernmost islands of Asuncion, Maug, and Uracus, became a highly protected marine protected area. All commercial fishing is banned in the area, with allowances for highly regulated sustenance, recreational, and traditional indigenous fishing. The rest of the monument, however, doesn’t really meet the standards of what the global community considers a marine protected area.<br />
<br />
Also, we knew from the start that the submerged lands would have to be granted through the Congress. It took Kilili almost seven years to pass that legislation and get most of it through the Federal Register -- but there is still work to do there.<br />
<br />
I've tracked these issues on the pages of this blog for nearly a decade now. My recent blogs <i><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/12/another-year-of-mariana-trench-advocacy.html?q=vision">Another Year of Mariana Trench Advocacy</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/03/addressing-monumental-frustrations.html">Addressing Monumental Frustrations</a></i> capture more of the detail and I encourage you to read them.<br />
<br />
<b>Monument Management Plan</b><br />
This background leads us to the first conservation and management issue, which is enactment of the monument management plan. The decree stated that a management plan must be in place within two years of the signing. <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2016/12/monumental-timeline.html">2011 came and went with little progress</a>. A staffer wasn’t hired until December 2016 – and she was placed on Guam (this would be like hiring someone to work at Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California and placing them in Oregon). Here we are in 2018, nearly 10 years since the declaration, and the management plan is still in draft form and has yet to be released to the public for review. There is still no staff in Saipan. Federal government representatives have told me every year since 2013 that the management plan would be released “next year.” The situation has led to incredible frustration on the islands.<br />
<br />
The governance of the monument is partially to blame for the lack of progress. USFWS and NOAA Fisheries are placed in different departments and have very different mandates. This has led to infighting as NOAA Fisheries seeks to exploit the fishery as much as legally possible, while USFWS seeks to fulfill their mission to protect the resources. Also, with no co-management, funding decisions are being made in Hawaii without the input of the local government and people. Almost no money from the annual $3 million budget has made its way to the Marianas. The money all stays in Hawaii, or gets spent on boats based in Hawaii that make their way out to the monument. The ships have made amazing discoveries, but only token attention has been paid to the local community.<br />
<br />
Again, this has been very frustrating for people on the islands. Over the last decade we’ve tried to fix the governance issues by changing the management structure by replacing USFWS with NOAA Sanctuaries. We’ve also advocated for co-management. Sadly, we made zero progress during the Obama Administration.<br />
<br />
There may be an opportunity to obtain co-management under the Trump Administration. For example, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke has made strong recommendations for local governments to have more say in how federal public lands and waters are managed.<br />
<br />
Today we are no longer trying to replace USFWS, but would really like to see them get the management plan out for public review. The governance issue will continue to be a problem, but at this point, we’re hoping that we can just get something – anything – out of NOAA Fisheries and USFWS despite their lack of progress during the first decade of the monument. <br />
<br />
<b>Trump Monument Review</b><br />
This leads us to the second issue. In April 2017, the Trump Administration announced a review of all large monuments created in the last 20 years, including the four marine monuments in the Pacific. A lot has been written about this review, especially as it pertains to Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2017/12/another-year-of-mariana-trench-advocacy.html?view=magazine">Ike wrote a series of letters</a> about the review that were published in the local Saipan papers. At this point, the review is complete, and no recommendations have been made for changes to the Mariana Trench Monument. There are recommendations for the <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2018/01/connecting-conservation-and-culture-in.html">Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument</a> and Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, and changes have already been made to Bears Ears. I hope this issue is almost over, but recognize that a threat to one monument is a threat to all monuments. The Trump Administration has set a new precedent wherein a president can overturn monument decisions of previous presidents. Will that stand? The courts will decide. As of this writing, there are no clues as to what happens next or when it will happen, if at all.<br />
<br />
<b>National Marine Sanctuary</b><br />
The Trump review was used as an excuse to hold up progress with the monument management plan (this is just the latest in a decade’s worth of excuses). It is also holding up progress with the third conservation and management issue, the nomination for a Mariana Trench National Marine Sanctuary. Rather than replacing USFWS, our goal today is to overlap the monument with a sanctuary. Creating a sanctuary would fill the conservation gaps under USFWS management, namely education, outreach, and interpretation of the cultural and marine resources of the Mariana Trench. This has worked well in Hawaii, American Samoa, and Florida, and it can work in the Marianas. <br />
<br />
The process for creating a sanctuary is prescribed by law and laid out on the NOAA Sanctuaries website. Sparked by a letter from Governor Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres and Delegate Gregorio Camacho Kilili Sablan, back in December 2016, Ike submitted a nomination, and that nomination was accepted in March 2017. The next step is for the Department of Commerce to begin what is called a sanctuary process. When that happens, NOAA Sanctuaries will hire staff and open an office on Saipan (or Tinian or Rota), and that staffer will be responsible for conducting environmental reviews and proposing options to the community for borders and rules for the potential sanctuary -- that's the government working directly with the community, so that we are clear. Others in the community have spun wild tales about how sanctuaries are made. He knows who he is, and if you are a regular reader of this blog, so do you.<br />
<br />
There are politics behind this. The federal government agencies that have failed to do their job the last ten years feel that NOAA Sanctuaries would make them look bad if they swooped in and delivered on all the promises made by the Bush Administration in 2008-2009. But we can’t let past incompetence get in the way of future progress. Creating a sanctuary would fulfill the vision that we had for the monument nearly a decade ago, and I think ultimately this is the most important conservation and management issue to consider. Hopefully the monument will get through the Trump review process unscathed and if we’re lucky, USFWS will put the monument management plan out for review “next year.” The sanctuary process could begin at any time, and I hope that our local leaders see the benefit of protecting the ocean and the benefits provided by the sanctuary program.</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-51307771894423562552018-02-28T09:33:00.002-05:002023-12-18T11:03:38.700-05:00Visiting Trump Hotel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My parents and my brother Kevin were in town last weekend, so we did the rounds visiting the monuments and Smithsonian museums. <br />
<br />
These days, no visit to Washington, DC is complete without a trip to the Trump International Hotel Washington, DC in the historic Old Post Office. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89R3jHsI6gJReqHm_Dq2154xZg4Z9z8bc6MVnGZCB5kF8ZLC3Sg5NUvPk2vvo_6f2_1MQxQH6kW_9hyphenhyphenx-SpUBElqt7VSp_9guYJuOTfjke8D4DiJIbOxlakTm_JxL2xKB_3wcaw/s1600/20180218_135148%255B1%255D.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89R3jHsI6gJReqHm_Dq2154xZg4Z9z8bc6MVnGZCB5kF8ZLC3Sg5NUvPk2vvo_6f2_1MQxQH6kW_9hyphenhyphenx-SpUBElqt7VSp_9guYJuOTfjke8D4DiJIbOxlakTm_JxL2xKB_3wcaw/s400/20180218_135148%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim and Mom at the Trump Hotel</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Family visits are always too short. Until next time!<br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavGbVcprkdslVQ7wwt8SKMROZDohsbnKJPoQdvUwLQzyYPWuFZ2IXNPhJKO6wW6wFp_OEgAo78_GqUYLt_m9v1LTqww6enlKJsLOwYkhUur81MESdaM4iq6zloTBm50KoiNiO3A/s1600/IMG_05981.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavGbVcprkdslVQ7wwt8SKMROZDohsbnKJPoQdvUwLQzyYPWuFZ2IXNPhJKO6wW6wFp_OEgAo78_GqUYLt_m9v1LTqww6enlKJsLOwYkhUur81MESdaM4iq6zloTBm50KoiNiO3A/s400/IMG_05981.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kevin shows up in time for a free meal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-58706024746282045552018-02-16T11:28:00.002-05:002018-02-19T08:40:24.394-05:00Bloomberg and Forbes Take on the Saipan Casino<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Two international media stories about the Saipan casino have been making the rounds on social media recently. Forbes has a story, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/muhammadcohen/2018/02/07/one-of-hong-kongs-richest-women-cui-lijie-is-losing-her-bet-on-saipan-casino/#27c8c32a1eaa"><i>One Of Hong Kong's Richest Women, Cui Lijie Is Losing Her Bet On Saipan Casino</i></a>. It basically says things aren't going well for the casino, and that they aren't making any money or progress on construction. Bloomberg's explosive piece is titled, <i><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-02-15/a-chinese-company-has-conquered-a-piece-of-america">A Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America</a></i>." This story is packed with so many accusations that I decided to make a list. These are the highlights I was able to gleam from the story:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Workers knew they were working illegally under tourist visas, hence why they invented a story for the accident at the worksite.</li>
<li>The casino is a backdoor to the U.S. financial system.</li>
<li>The casino hasn't been following safety protocols, from workers not being provided safety goggles or proper foot wear, to lack of training.</li>
<li>The casino is a giant money laundering scheme.</li>
<li>Laws have been changed to suit the casino's needs.</li>
<li>Contracts requirements have been ignored to suit the casino's needs.</li>
<li>The governor's family has received millions of dollars in payments from the casino.</li>
<li>The governor and other politicians formerly opposed the casino, but changed their tune after a "fact finding trip" to Hong Kong and Macau which was paid for by individuals linked to the casino.</li>
<li>Imperial Pacific had no experience in casino construction or operation prior to their bid to operate the casino.</li>
<li>Government officials did not do their due diligence in selecting the Imperial Pacific proposal.</li>
<li>People listed as casino consultants had not had serious discussions with the casino prior to being listed as consultants.</li>
<li>The $15 million annual fee rescued the CNMI economy from the brink.</li>
<li>The casino is a junket operator whose purpose is to move hard currency out of China. Wealthy individuals borrow money from the operator, and then cash out in non-Chinese currency. The debt is collected back in China in Chinese currency. The operator gets a cut.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/muhammadcohen/2018/02/07/one-of-hong-kongs-richest-women-cui-lijie-is-losing-her-bet-on-saipan-casino/&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/">Cui Lijie</a>, a Chinese billionaire is behind everything. The Forbes story says her son is the "mastermind." She used to operate in Macau, but the Chinese government cracked down on the junket operations there. The article insinuates that her 650 high rollers have simply moved operations from Macau to Saipan.</li>
<li>Mark Brown was hired as a front person.</li>
<li>Shen Yan was arrested in 2011 for carrying a gun to the Hong Kong Airport.</li>
<li>Shen Yan was hired to bring on prominent Americans to serve on an advisory board. The former governors of Pennsylvania and Mississippi were paid $5,000/month to be on the board.</li>
<li>The VIP bets at the casino were "unprecedented, verging on impossible, or at least not legally possible." </li>
<li>Workers were encouraged by an executive and board member to submit incomplete and misleading know-your-customer declarations.</li>
<li>The casino helps players structure transactions to avoid reporting requirements.</li>
<li>The governor lied about who paid for his trip to Hong Kong.</li>
<li>The sprinkler system inside the casino doesn't work, and three firefighters have to be on site at all times.</li>
<li>The basement of the casino has repeatedly flooded with ankle deep sewage.</li>
<li>The government allowed the casino to open despite a report that it was structurally unsafe.</li>
<li>A supervisory body which made recommendations not to open the casino because it was unsafe was dismissed.</li>
<li>The casino's lawyers are the governor's brothers.</li>
<li>The governor's family is flipping land: Purchasing it at low prices and then leasing it to the casino for large profits.</li>
<li>Legislation supported by the casino passes 100% of the time.</li>
<li>The rate of injuries at the casino construction site greatly exceeds the national average.</li>
<li>A worker with a broken back was sent back to China instead of being hospitalized on Saipan.</li>
<li>Casino contractors were charged with immigration violations, some pleaded guilty.</li>
<li>Imperial Pacific has said that it had no knowledge of safety violations or workers being employed illegally.</li>
<li>A worker was electrocuted in September.</li>
<li>Illegal workers accused the casino of purposely employing illegal workers.</li>
<li>The Commonwealth Casino Commission glances over important issues, including safety issues.</li>
<li>The executive director of the CCC is the governor's uncle and father to his chief of staff.</li>
<li>CCC employees have little to no experience with casinos.</li>
<li>The casino was smuggling hard currency from Saipan to Hong Kong on a yacht.</li>
<li>Imperial Pacific and the government employ the same lobby firm.</li>
<li>The casino used the governor's brother's law firm to get Changwei Xu -- wanted on a Nevada arrest warrant -- out of jail on Saipan.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Saipan has a long history of attracting unflattering international press. In the 1990s it was related to the <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2009/11/two-worlds.html">garment factories</a>. In the early years of this century it was <a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/2006/05/saipan-blogger-takes-on-ms-magazine.html">still the garment factories</a>. And then there was that time when<a href="http://www.taotaotasi.com/search/label/Rub-a-dub-dub-gate"> the former governor broke an accused human smuggler out of jail to give him a massage</a>.<br />
<br />
I often find agreement with the critics in regards to what they find wrong about the CNMI. But I also often find that I am in disagreement in the prescribed remedy. Many of these problems are rooted in colonization, and this is the ultimate evil which is never discussed when these issues are brought to the fore. The solution is to end colonization, not to enforce it with decisions from afar.<br />
<br />
The federal government does not take interest in the economic development of the CNMI because their main concern in our islands is empire, military expansion, and national defense. The indigenous people have been steamrolled in favor of the greater good. We are a minority of a few thousand with no voice in a nation of 330 million people.<br />
<br />
The casino, and the garment industry that preceded it, and all the evils that came with both could have been avoided if the United States took a real interest in the sustainable development of the islands. The casino was a last ditch effort to save the islands from going over the edge of economic desperation. The solution is not to go after the symptoms, but the underlying causes. I would like to see the casino go away. But what will replace it?</div>
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9825779.post-54490935598078923562018-01-14T17:00:00.000-05:002018-01-14T17:05:27.873-05:00One Marianas Summit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPO0x4BQY7oQqx-ChHZVz6PVPXZWbapSCaJ8pcVGYxuJTr4Yjwik3lq96jraqABV_1PU4MLmG3gIBEXPYv9MI1DnZd8HMl2gSetO_YlK7WYD0N__wJgN12m9iSFD-ujyFOUkDZOg/s1600/IMG_8337.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPO0x4BQY7oQqx-ChHZVz6PVPXZWbapSCaJ8pcVGYxuJTr4Yjwik3lq96jraqABV_1PU4MLmG3gIBEXPYv9MI1DnZd8HMl2gSetO_YlK7WYD0N__wJgN12m9iSFD-ujyFOUkDZOg/s400/IMG_8337.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tano yan tasi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Government representatives from the CNMI and Guam are meeting this week at a <i>One Marianas Summit</i> to discuss free trade, food security, health, tourism, homeland security, and labor. These are important topics for our community, and I am glad that they are being discussed. However, I find it interesting that a conference on a united Marianas doesn’t include a mandate to discuss culture and conservation, arguably the two most significant matters connecting our people across the archipelago. <br />
<br />
The loss of culture and natural resources are often linked, and the causes of both are rooted in unsustainable development and colonization. Food security and health, both topics being discussed at the summit, depend heavily on a healthy environment. If we have healthy lands and ocean, we will have healthy food and activities, giving us healthy people. Our culture is enriched by the bounty of the land and sea when it is gathered sustainably and when it adheres to the values of our indigenous forebears.<br />
<br />
Sadly, marine protection in the CNMI and Guam lags behind the rest of the American Pacific. <a href="https://marine-conservation.org/seastates/us/2015/">The Marine Conservation Institute</a> audits marine protected area coverage across the United States and the world. They have found that Hawaii and American Samoa protect 22.7% and 8.8% of their state and territorial waters, respectively, and that the CNMI and Guam only protect 0.22% and 0.14% of our local waters, respectively. No new marine protected areas have been created in the CNMI or Guam in nearly 20 years. In contrast, Governor Ige of Hawaii is committed to increasing Hawaii’s coverage to 30%. In fact, much of the world is moving towards protecting 30% of the ocean.<br />
<br />
That we are behind the Hawaiians and Samoans should not come as a surprise (We also lag behind the Palauans, Micronesians, and Marshallese). Scientific studies conducted in Guam and the CNMI over the last several years have found that our people have perceived declines in our ocean health. The same studies have shown that our people want more ocean protections. <br />
<br />
The science of marine protections is well studied and the benefits are easy to predict. Marine protected areas that are well designed and managed result in more fish, bigger fish, higher biodiversity, and higher biomass. The benefits of marine protections also benefit tourism, as visitors from far off lands come to our islands to experience first hand our beautiful beaches. It is by no mistake that Managaha and Tumon Bay, both marine protected areas, drive our local tourism economies. We need more places like this, and our people expect more of them.<br />
<br />
I wish the delegates at the One Marianas Summit success in finding solutions to these important issues, and I ask they keep the land, the ocean, and the culture of our people at the forefront of their minds during their discussions.
</div>
Angelo Villagomezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00970383305205702533noreply@blogger.com