2008 CNMI Marine Monitoring Plan Released
The Coastal Resources Management Office and
Division of Environmental Quality have jointly approved a revised
monitoring plan that covers both activities of the MMT and DEQ's
Environmental Surveillance Laboratory. The plan is revised
approximately every five years and provides an overview of marine and
water quaility survey activities in the CNMI, documents methods being
used, and provides guidance on the programs plans for expanding
monitoring activities in coming years. Click the Data Reporting link at
the top of the page to access a downloadable 10MB pdf of the report.
CNMI's Interagency Marine Monitoring Team
celebrates 10 years of marine research.
Formed at the behest of DEQ in 1997 to address
concerns over sediment erosion from an illegal land clearing in Lau Lau
Bay, the MMT has expanded surveys assessing and monitoring reef
conditions throughout the Marianas. Actively supported by Coastal
Resources Management, the MMT has had participation from Division of
Fish and Wildlife, Northern Marianas College and a large number of
volunteers since itt inception. An article on the MMT was featured in
NOAA's National Coastal Program News in April of this year. Click here
to download a copy of the .pdf article>> MMT
Article
Volunteer
discovers urchin unkown in Mariana Islands!
The image to the left was taken by Capt. Carl
Brachear while
snorkelling in Saipan Lagoon. His discovery is the first proven record
of the sea urchin Asthenosoma varium
in the Mariana Islands! Thanks go to Capt. Carl for sharing this image
and providing interesting reports about some other rare species in the
lagoon. If you have seen something unusual during a dive or snorkel,
feel free to contact CRM to report it: 664-8300 or consider joining the
BioSearch Program described below.
MMT Student
Internship... still going strong
We welcome Northern Marianas College student
Andrew Moses to our program. Andrew will
be continuing a population study of the intertidal clam Atactodea,
assisting with a collaborative project to understand heavy metal
concentrations in bivalves in Saipan Lagoon.
He will be also be helping with an ongoing project
to map water quality in Saipan
Lagoon. The water quality project recently received support in the form
of
of a YSI6600 multi-parameter water quality sonde provided by the
NSF-ATE program Partnership
for Advanced Marine and Environmental
Science Training for Pacific Islanders through NMC's science
and mathematics department . Thanks go to both of these programs
for supporting CNMI's marine monitoring program.
BioSearch...
Volunteer for the MMT!
Do you log your dives? Do you want to help manage
our local marine resources? You can do both by participating in the
BioSearch Program. By filling out observations about your dive or
snorkel,
you can help us fill in gaps about some of the larger animals found in
Marianas waters- whales, sharks, turtles, and help warn of
environmental changes such as the appearance of Crown of Thorns
seastars and Coral Bleaching.
To find out more about this program, visit the BioSearch
Homepage.
