Some of the Indigenous scientists from Saipan and Guam on a zoom call to discuss MPAs and OECMs in the Mariana Islands Dr. Steven Mana‘oakamai Johnson and I published a peer reviewed paper this summer, "Assessing the quantity and quality of marine protected areas in the Mariana Islands."  We later published this op-ed in the Pacific Daily News to communicate our findings to the communities back home.  This was the first paper I've done with Dr.  Mana‘oakamai Johnson.  We're both from Saipan, and Steve's grandfather Herb Soll gave my late father, Ramon Garrido Villagomez, his first job working for the Public Defender's office in Saipan.  Our families have worked together for three generations now, and I think that is pretty cool. The waters surrounding the Mariana Islands have some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the United States. We are surrounded by migrating whales and turtles, coral reefs and hundreds of species of fish, some found nowhere else