I've been advocating for marine monuments and national marine sanctuaries in the US Pacific territories since 2007.   I've literally been there since the beginning, as  I was seated about 10 feet away from George W. Bush  when he designated the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2009.    I am also the conservation chair for the  Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument Community Group, founded the Friends of the Mariana Trench, and wrote the nomination for the erstwhile Mariana Trench National Marine Sanctuary.   I was involved in efforts to expand the Pacific Remote Islands in 2014 and Papahanaumokuakea in 2016.  But  I was not involved in the 2022 effort to ask President Biden to expand the Pacific Remote Islands using the Antiquities Act (although I did review some of their materials ahead of launching their campaign), nor was I involved in nominating the area as a proposed national marine sanctuary. National marine sanctuaries are designated with a pu

We organized a second Upwell conference this year.  It was co-hosted by Azul, Center for American Progress, and Urban Ocean Lab, was supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Green 2.0, and the Ocean Defense Initiative, and  made possible by funding from Mosaic, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Oceankind, the Walton Family Foundation, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.  I had the honor to introduce our keynote speaker, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.  Here are my remarks:  Hafa adai. Happy Ocean Week! Happy Pride! I also want to welcome all of you to Upwell 2024 It’s an honor to stand before you today as we gather to discuss critical issues related to our oceans and their future My name is Angelo Villagomez and I am thrilled to be your MC today Upwell 2024 is not just another conference – it is a movement. A wave of change that seeks to address the inequities that have plagued our ocean for far too long. As we gather here, we r

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland at Upwell 2024 I joined the Center for American Progress in November 2021 and have been able to use that platform to advocate for better management of the Mariana Trench -- and many other marine protected areas in the United States. On June 4, during the Upwell 2024 conference held at the Center for American Progress, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would soon implement final management plans for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. In response, I issued the following statement : "These two marine monuments were designated during the Bush and Obama administrations, but their management plans have languished in bureaucratic limbo for years. This announcement is a critical step toward achieving effective management for huge swaths of protected waters in the United States and protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. Together, t

Edz at the 2016 DNC in Philadelphia I don't usually ask friends for money on the Internet -- unless it's to purchase lottery tickets  -- but Edz and I are hoping to attend the Democratic National Convention this year and flights and hotels in Chicago are expensive. Would you be willing to donate $10 to support our participation?  We can accept donations via PayPal , Venmo , and CashApp .  To show our gratitude, I'll send everyone who donates at least $10 one of these limited edition retro Northern Mariana Islands donkey buttons.  The logo is from my run for Saipan mayor  in 2009, and features a donkey wearing a mwaar.   Everyone who donates $10 will receive one of these limited edition buttons Please make the donation using one of the apps listed above and then send me an email with your physical mailing address at angelovillagomez at gmail dot com.  I'll send you a button in the mail. DONATE USING  PayPal DONATE USING  Venmo DONATE USING  CashApp This will be our secon

Speaking at Our Ocean A few months ago, a colleague put me in contact with the editor of Smithsonian's Native American magazine.  She asked me to write something about my Chamorro culture and how that relates to ocean conservation and my career. I wanted to tell the story about how everyday Indigenous lessons learned growing up on an island developed my sense of values and ethics.  My first draft was just over 1,000 words, then the editor had me fill in more of the story, growing it to 2,000 words.  Then she told me I had to slash it back down to 1,000.  The result was  Dreaming of a Protected Ocean .  There's a longer version of this I'd like to write one day. I also wrote an article for the annual Our Ocean conference taking place in Greece this year.   Now Is the Time to Secure President Biden's Ocean Leadership Legacy  calls on the Biden administration to do the same things I also called on them to do in 2022 and 2023 . I will freely admit that the Our Ocean confere

I spoke at Our Ocean Greece 2024 yesterday.  I think it went well. I had prepared remarks, but none of the other panelists were reading or using notes, so I figured neither would I.  In the preceding week, I spent a good amount of time preparing for what was supposed to be a 3 minute speech followed by a panel discussion, but every panelist went well beyond their allotted time, and we never actually got to the discussion part.  I spoke last -- as the least distinguished speaker -- and was thrown for a bit of a loop when the moderator asked me what was supposed to be my follow up question.  Earlier in the day I was talking with my friend Sheila about our recently deceased friend Cinta Kaipat , so I started my story with her.  Everything else just poured out as I thought of my friend. There were a couple of other things I wanted to say, so I'm posting my remarks here for no other reason than I spent a lot of time on them.  I had wanted to get in a talking point about 50x50 and I want

America the Beautiful for All Coalition members in Washington, DC  The America the Beautiful For All Coalition comprises people representing hundreds of organizations, missions, cultures, and identities. The Coalition developed the 2024 Policy Agenda to achieve the most ambitious conservation goal of the century,  conserving 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030 .   You can download the full  2024 American the Beautiful for All Coalition policy agenda  on their website. I lead the ocean work group, and share our ocean policy agenda items below: Ocean Justice for Coastal and Island Communities Important progress was made for the ocean in 2023. The administration developed the first ever Ocean Climate Action Plan, which sets three goals to (1) create a carbon neutral future, (2) accelerate solutions that tap natural coastal and ocean systems to absorb greenhouse gases, and (3) enhance community resilience to ocean change. The administration also launched the Ocean Justice Strategy, wh