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| Robot workshop participants last week in Saipan. |
In my work in conservation I've come to realize that discovery often follows protection. There is no better example than the NOAA Okeanos Explorer, which in recent years has explored the depths of the Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll, Pacific Remote Islands, and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monuments.
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.
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.
I realized this last night after rereading Our Northern Islands, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Our Northern Islands 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 Lady Carolina, and on the shores of Pagan and Agrigan, swatting flies between paragraphs.
Our Northern Islands 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.
Angelo Villagomez
August 15, 2010