“Thought is the wind, knowledge is the sail, and mankind is the vessel.” ~ Augustus Hare

1. WESTERN PACIFIC REGIONAL FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL1
THE NORTHERN MARIANAS TRENCH NATIONAL MARINE MONUMENT
CAN COMMERCE and SCIENCE CO-EXIST?
Governor Eddie Bazo Calvo, Governor of Guam, Letter to Secretary Ryan Zinke, U.S.
Department of the Interior. Subject: Removing the Marianas Trench National Monument from the
United States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). July 5, 2017, accessed October 4, 2017.
http://www.wpcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Gov-letter-to-DOI.pdf
The Senate, Twentieth Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature
Senate Resolution No. 20-05, July 11, 2017.
To respectfully request that Secretary Ryan Zinke, U.S. Department of
the Interior and Secretary Wilber Ross, U.S. Department of Commerce,
restore fishing and mineral resources extraction rights to the
Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Trench Marine National
Monument to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management
Council as authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation Act while mineral resources extraction be treated as
other submerged lands found in the CNMI; and to convey
disapproval of the establishment of any National Marine Sanctuary
in the CNMI.
Source: WESPAC. Accessed October 4, 2017
http://www.wpcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Senate-
Resolution.pdf
SITTING ON A GOLD MINE
If international seafloor mining companies’ interests in previous years are
a gauge, then the CNMI may be sitting on or surrounded by multimillion
worth of high-grade hydrothermal deposits rich in copper, zinc and lead
with a high gold and silver content as well as large oil and natural gas
reserves—without its local government even knowing about it—based on
information that House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan)2
recently gathered.
Source: Sitting on a gold mine. By Haider V. Eugenio. Saipan Tribune.
February 4, 2014, accessed October 4, 2017.
https://www.saipantribune.com/index.php/sitting-gold-mine/
1 A Guide to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council http://www.wpcouncil.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/COUNCIL_PROCESS_GUIDEv5_FINAL.pdf
2 Joseph Deleon Guerrero, Republican, is currently CNMI Representative for District 1 - Saipan

2. THE SCIENCE
On Earth circa four billion years ago, life was hard. Frequent asteroid
strikes turned parts of the planet into molten rock. Food and livable
spaces were few and far between. What was a microbe to do to survive?
Some very early life could have made it by staying deep—living as far as
six miles below the seafloor.
That’s the implication from a new study that found signs of microbes
alive today below the deepest place on Earth, the vast underwater canyon
called the Mariana Trench.
The trench is part of a subduction zone, where the Pacific tectonic plate
slips beneath the Philippine Sea plate. The surrounding seafloor is
littered with hydrothermal vents and mud volcanoes, churning out
ingredients from the deep Earth.
Source: These Maybe the Deepest Traces of Life on Earth. A hidden
ecosystem seems to lurk six miles below the Mariana Trench, offering
clues for finding life across the solar system. By Claudia Geib. National
Geographic. April 10, 2017, accessed October 4, 2017.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/deepest-life-earth-mariana-trench-
astrobiology-science/
___________
The trench marks a subduction zone, where one slab of crust slides
beneath another. But whereas many other subducting plates slope
gradually downward, in the Mariana the Pacific Plate dives nearly
vertically.
Scientists have long wondered what accounts for that precipitous dive,
and why the massive earthquakes that generate long-ranging tsunamis at
other subduction zones have not been recorded in the trench.
Source: Expedition probes ocean trench’s deepest secrets. By Jane Qui.
Science. January 11, 2017, accessed October 4, 2017
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/expedition-probes-ocean-trench-s-
deepest-secrets
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Foundational Source: Congressman Blasts Fishery Council For ‘Improper Lobbying’. The Northern
Marianas lawmaker demands an investigation of the Hawaii-based Western Pacific Regional Fishery
Management Council. By Kirstin Downey. Honolulu Civil Beat. October 4, 2017
http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/10/congressman-blasts-fishery-council-for-improper-lobbying/