Friends of the Mariana Trench

The Friends of the Mariana Trench is focused on ocean conservation. Our long term vision is that we would see 30 new ocean science students at our local college and that we would help the local college re-establish its marine science program by 2030. Moreover as these students graduate, they will make better informed stakeholders and decision makers. And new economic paradigms may arise with new a policy direction.

Additionally, we serve as guardians and advocates for compelling the federal government to follow through on its mandates.

Project HOPE - Healthy Oceans & People Empowerment: Project HOPE (Healthy Ocean & People Empowerment) is an educational collaboration between PSS sixth-graders, NMC ENRO college students, and community elders. Funded by a grant from the Administration of Native Americans (ANA), Project HOPE strives to improve CNMI sixth-graders’ ACT Aspire test scores by offering them a free ocean science program uniquely tailored to their needs; by incorporating local elders’ ocean expertise into a Western science curriculum, the program acts as a bridge between traditional culture and modern conservation science. In the long term, we hope to see this initiative foster interest in conservation careers among CNMI youth, ultimately leading to the development of 30 more local conservation professionals by 2030.

Coastal and Ocean Sustainability for the Mariana Islands Community (COSMIC) Hub: The Hub will aim to transform our community’s reactive and sporadic approach to proactive and comprehensive by addressing research, planning and policy development supporting sustainable management of our ocean resources. Incorporating citizen participation in determining current societal needs, using science advancements and closing data gaps, our research will build local capacity to study, assess and plan coastal management efforts to balance current, multiple ocean and coastal uses with conservation. Findings will serve further research as well as regional resource management, policy and law to integrate solutions into Mariana Islands governance frameworks. Key for health and sustainability, our community will be empowered to make informed decisions by maximizing their voices based on science, technology, and traditional knowledge and cultural systems.

Mariana Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan: Maintain vigilance in monitoring information and actions taken by the federal government. Convey information to our local community. Strategy with the local government to compel the federal government towards action.

Our greatest strength is our people. Our board members and staff are passionate and committed. Presently, we are building our capacity including adding new projects, new staff, and new board members. We have strong foundational organizational policies and procedures in place to guide our growth. We use a blended approach to project management. Our team members are dedicated to our projects and very capable of creating or executing objective-specific work plans. Weekly staff check-in meetings ensure that priorities are monitored and adjustments made in real time. We are experts at contingency plans and resilient by numerous experiences of adjusting to changing circumstances. We document all of our activities from timekeeping and project costing to social media and regular project reporting.

We rededicated ourselves to our community in 2017 with a strong direction for rebuilding and making research and education our focus. We are especially passionate about helping facilitate communications and community involvement.

In 2018 our 501c3 was approved and we partnered with other NGOs and community partners to deliver our first underwater robotics workshop. In the same year, we produced the traveling photo exhibit to share with our community to help them learn about marine life in the Mariana Trench. We also participated in two capacity-building activities sponsored by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Wildlife Refuge.

In 2019, we were awarded a 3-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans to create ocean science clubs for our public school 6th-grade students. This is an inter-generational learning exchange between our college students, our ocean elders, and 6th graders blending STEM with traditional science teaching and learning methods. Additionally, we were selected for additional technical assistance support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to join in a communications training. By the end of 2019, we were further awarded two small capacity-building awards from the Refuge Retirees Association and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.

In 2020, we were awarded a grant from the Northern Mariana Islands Humanities Council to establish our website and build our digital history archive on this website. While we were challenged to reach our goals in 2020, we were able to work with our community partners to deliver modified services and still engage with the college students, the elders, and the 6th-graders. We also worked on developing projects for high school students based on a similar learning model and began project development and scoping for COSMIC Hub: Coastal and Ocean Sustainability for the Mariana Islands Community.

In 2021, we were awarded a capacity-building grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which provided for our membership drive and using The Board Doctor to help us review our policies, identify our strengths and weaknesses, and to craft our 3-year strategic plan. We delivered workshops for our community on how to participate in the public commenting process for the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument (MTMNM) management plan as well as the history of the creation of the monument. We engaged with Wonder Strategies for Good to help our college students, board members, and ocean elders engage with our community more effectively and how to structure a multi-generational approach to teaching 6th-graders. By mid-year, we were awarded another grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; this time to begin developing our mid-career professionals volunteer corp and helped to initiate two research papers that will help with establishing baseline information for marine protected areas and fishing effort in the Mariana Islands.