The 30-day comment period for the federal government’s deep sea mining proposal in marianas ends today, December 12.  As reported, under President Donald Trump's directive, the US Bureau of Energy Management is looking to open some 35 million acres of federal waters near the Northern Mariana Islands and the Marianas Trench for mineral extraction.

Here at home, the environmental concerns have been growing. Local group Prutehi Guahan organized a protest and community meeting thursday evening, urging the community to speak out against the plans.

"This is our food security. This is the health of our ocean that keeps us safe in rising temperatures in a climate crisis," said Monaeka Flores at a demonstration at the ITC intersection at Tamuning. "These are the oceans that have ancestral spirits in them that we've always respected. If you've grown up in the islands, you have an understanding how important and sacred the oceans is. This is an urget issue.

"The Trump Administration wants to start deep sea mining, which is why they started this commenting period. So if we could just get everybody out there to submit a comment, that's really the best we can do. We're hoping to stop deep sea mining in the Marianas."

The governors of Guam and the CNMI jointly requested a 120-day extension for more time to provide meaningful feedback, but that extension has not been granted. 

As of newstime, over 300 comments have been submitted online to the federal register.