After American Samoa, the Trump administration has set its sights on the Northern Marianas, where the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has launched the initial steps that could potentially lead to leasing the seabed for mineral harvesting in the commonwealth’s outer continental shelf. The bureau has issued a request for information to solicit industry interest in deep-sea mining in federally managed waters offshore the CNMI, in line with the Trump administration’s bid to facilitate domestic production of critical minerals to secure supply chains for U.S. defense, infrastructure and energy.
The federal plan, however, faces backlash ahead, with Guam and CNMI leaders cautioning the bureau against risking any hasty and uninformed decisions to open up the waters around the Marianas to deep-sea mining.
“The conservation group Friends of the Mariana Trench has launched a petition opposing the federal plan to raid the Marianas seabed.
“Current deep-sea mining technologies pose tremendous risks of disrupting fisheries and marine ecosystems, which would endanger Guam and the CNMI’s interconnected economies,” Guam Sen. James Moylan and CNMI Del. Kimberly-Ting Hinds said in a letter to Matthew Hancock, the bureau’s director.
The delegates backed Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and CNMI Gov. David Apatang’s request for a 120-day extension of the public commenting period.
“There must be more scientific research to understand the true impacts of this form of mineral extraction,” Leon Guerrero said in a statement.
President Donald Trump also seeks to open the Marianas Trench National Monument and other federally protected marine areas in the Pacific to fisheries as part of his policy to restore “American seafood competitiveness” and unleash American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific.
Linking Guam and Fiji
Christian Infrastructure Inc., a Google subsidiary, is seeking the Federal Communications Commission’s approval to build and test the Guam portion of the Bulikula submarine fiber ring, pending acquisition of the company’s cable landing permit.
Starfish said the Bulikula system is expected to be installed on Dec. 16, 2020. Its request for special temporary authority “to ensure that cable-laying activities in U.S. territory may proceed as scheduled.”
Bulikula will be the first system to directly link Guam, the CNMI and Hawaii with Fiji and French Polynesia, which has several landing points. (Pacific Island Times News Staff)