With less than a handful of days to provide public comments, concerns are growing over plans for deep sea mining in the Marianas. A protest and community meeting are being organized by local organization Prutehi Guahan, who says the community and local leaders need to stand up against the “destruction and desecration” of the ocean. 

It's an urgent call to action from the local activist group, as they're holding a protest and community meeting Thursday afternoon at the ITC intersection in Tamuning against the federal government’s deep sea mining proposal in the Marianas. 

"We don’t know enough about the ecology of the deep sea. We don’t know enough about the impacts of the technology," said Monaeka Flores. "But what we do know is that this is the most vulnerable, critical part of our planet that needs our protection. And as indigenous Pacific Islanders, it’s our obligation and responsibility to stand against this permanent destruction and desecration of our sacred ocean."

As KUAM News reported, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management wants to open more than 35 million acres of federal waters near the Northern Mariana Islands and the Marianas Trench to potential deep sea-mining. They put out a request for information to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands about a month ago, kicking off a 30-day comment period. 

The governors of Guam and the CNMI jointly requested for more time with a 120-day extension. But Adelup confirms that extension has not been granted yet and the deadline is fast approaching. The comment period ends December 12 - this Friday. 

"Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a townhall meeting yet in our community, hosted by the government here or even in the CNMI. So we really wanted to create a community space for people to gather to visibly oppose this Request for Information," said Flores.

The protest will be from 4 to 5:30pm. Immediately after, a community meeting will be held at 6pm in the Tamuning Community Center. 

Flores says it’s an opportunity for residents to discuss their concerns, document them, and hear from local speakers. "It’s really important that people understand they do not have to be experts on deep sea mining, or even on the technology or the ecology. All they need to do is care about this issue and talk about how it impacts us directly and personally as Pacific Islanders," she said.

In the meantime, Flores also calls on local leaders to clearly “stand up and speak out,” like American Samoa, which is also being eyed for deep sea mining. "We need our government and the government of the Northern Mariana Islands to also make that position, to say no to deep sea mining. We need our folks to come out and oppose deep sea mining," she stated.

"We invite everyone to join us at the protest tomorrow...but more than anything, we need our community members to submit comments to BOEM and to the Department of Interior. They can look at our toolkit, for tips, for the video on the comment workshop we held, and for all kinds of important talking points."