My Remarks at the Creation Justice Ministries Meeting
I was invited to speak at a meeting hosted by Creation Justice Ministries called Current Threats to our Ocean and the Moral Call to Respond. The organizers asked me to speak about the rollback of marine national monuments by the Trump administration.
Hello everybody, my name is Angelo Villagomez and I was born near the ocean. I was born in a village on an island next to the Mariana Trench. I call Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands my home. I am Chamorro, and I was raised in the Catholic faith, which feels appropriate to share with this audience. Today I work for an organization in Washington, DC called the Center for American Progress.
And here I’ll just show you a picture of me as a kid with some of my relatives, and here are some pictures of the sorts of things I do as an adult. I only have a few minutes for remarks, so I thought I’d start with a story.
In January 2007 – almost 20 years ago – my friend Cinta Kaipat, a local elected official in Saipan and a family friend, invited me to a meeting in her office on Saipan’s Capital Hill with a man named Jay Nelson from an organization I had heard of, but didn’t really know much about. It was called the Pew Trusts. Mr. Nelson was from Alaska and had just recently worked on securing a large protected area in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was so successful, that Pew and its funders were looking for communities around the world that could model their ocean conservation after what had just happened in Hawaii. They were looking for places that were (1) large, (2) historically mostly unfished, (3) in a country with a history of conservation, and (4) with some hope of enforcement.
We met with Mr. Nelson for two hours that day. The waters around the Marianas are indeed large, at over 1 million square kilometers, and we haven’t had any large scale commercial fishing in our waters for many decades, and we are a territory owned by, but not part of the United States – so for the most part – the same laws apply to us as apply in Hawaii.
Cinta and I discussed this, and knowing what we know about our islands, suggested that back then – remember, this was 2007, a lot has happened since then – we thought that protecting the waters around our sanctuary islands seemed reasonable – pictured here is the island of Maug.
We were very clear that we were only interested in the waters around the three far northern islands, and during the discussion I pointed out that the northern portion of the Mariana Trench extended to this area. We agreed that the name Mariana Trench marine national monument was a very good name, and we parted ways with a commitment to continue the discussion.
And that conversation continued over the next two years. Cinta and I, with the support of our networks and families, and yes, Pew, put together this proposal – a huge marine protected area taking up about one third of the US EEZ that would be off limits to industrial fishing, and only allow Indigineous fishing. Fishing is important to our culture, and it was important that our practices be allowed to continue.
We were joined by hundreds of ocean advocates in our community, and I won’t list them all. We came together to form the Friends of the Mariana Trench, who led the public engagement in the community from the summer of 2008 until the designation in 2009.
On the day of the monument’s designation, after a public campaign to build support, Governor Fitial, Senate President Reyes, and House Speaker Palacios announced their support for the designation of the monument. This was in large part due to the overwhelming local support at the time, and the intense public campaign.
This slide shows what we initially proposed on the left, and what our community finally agreed upon on the right. The differences in these two maps shows that there was a lot of community engagement and compromise.
There’s a much longer discussion about the monument to be had here – I’ve written and spoken about its strengths, weaknesses, and shortcomings at great length over the last 20 years. Today I’m happy that there are finally staff and an office on Saipan conducting programs with our community. There is a visitor contact station in Garapan. And a management plan was published in 2024 – and I had the honor to introduce the secretary of the Interior when she made the announcement.
Other communities around the country have similar stories. I mentioned the monument in Hawaii, and there are three others. Today the United States has five marine national monuments, all designated or expanded or rolled back or reinstated between 2006 and today. When the Biden administration announced that the United States had protected about “one third” of US oceans, these five monuments were doing about 99% of that work.
The communities attached to these monuments are very proud of the work they’ve put in to protect these places. The big lesson I’ve learned over 20 years is that conservation takes a long time. And it takes a lot of effort. And it takes a lot of people. Alright, so that was three lessons, but who’s counting.
But that progress is now under threat. Following the reelection of Donald Trump, the administration has moved to roll back protections for all five monuments. These areas are now subject to regulatory challenges and legal disputes that threaten their very existence.
The Trump administration is attempting to open the entirety of the NE Canyons & Seamounts and the Rose Atoll monuments, and vast portions of Mariana Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, and Papahanaumokuakea monuments, to industrial fishing. This is a combined area of 2.3 million square kilometers—twice the size of Greenland—being stripped of its protections.
Our communities have responded with great disappointment. Sen. Chris Barnett told media "It's disappointing to see the rollback of protections like these, for what really looks like partisan and political reasons.”
Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey put out a joint statement, “President Trump’s rollback of protections goes against clear legal precedent, creating the risks and uncertainty—both legal and environmental—that have been hallmarks of his administration.”
The American Samoa delegate to the US Congress released a statement saying she “remains convinced that Rose Atoll should be off limits, her longstanding position, especially as she respects the cultural rights of the people of Manu‘a”
Dr. Kekuewa Kikiloi said “President Trump’s most recent proclamation undermines two decades of public and stakeholder effort to protect this special region of Hawai’i.”
And for Pacific Remote Islands and NE Canyons and Seamounts, our partners have already filed lawsuits against these actions.
We are ready to defend these places not just because they are legally protected, but because we have a moral obligation to protect these sacred sanctuaries for the generations to come. We will not stand by. Our partners are already filing suit, and their message is clear: Mr. Trump, we’ll see you in court.
And here I’ll just show you a picture of me as a kid with some of my relatives, and here are some pictures of the sorts of things I do as an adult. I only have a few minutes for remarks, so I thought I’d start with a story.
In January 2007 – almost 20 years ago – my friend Cinta Kaipat, a local elected official in Saipan and a family friend, invited me to a meeting in her office on Saipan’s Capital Hill with a man named Jay Nelson from an organization I had heard of, but didn’t really know much about. It was called the Pew Trusts. Mr. Nelson was from Alaska and had just recently worked on securing a large protected area in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was so successful, that Pew and its funders were looking for communities around the world that could model their ocean conservation after what had just happened in Hawaii. They were looking for places that were (1) large, (2) historically mostly unfished, (3) in a country with a history of conservation, and (4) with some hope of enforcement.
We met with Mr. Nelson for two hours that day. The waters around the Marianas are indeed large, at over 1 million square kilometers, and we haven’t had any large scale commercial fishing in our waters for many decades, and we are a territory owned by, but not part of the United States – so for the most part – the same laws apply to us as apply in Hawaii.
Cinta and I discussed this, and knowing what we know about our islands, suggested that back then – remember, this was 2007, a lot has happened since then – we thought that protecting the waters around our sanctuary islands seemed reasonable – pictured here is the island of Maug.
We were very clear that we were only interested in the waters around the three far northern islands, and during the discussion I pointed out that the northern portion of the Mariana Trench extended to this area. We agreed that the name Mariana Trench marine national monument was a very good name, and we parted ways with a commitment to continue the discussion.
And that conversation continued over the next two years. Cinta and I, with the support of our networks and families, and yes, Pew, put together this proposal – a huge marine protected area taking up about one third of the US EEZ that would be off limits to industrial fishing, and only allow Indigineous fishing. Fishing is important to our culture, and it was important that our practices be allowed to continue.
We were joined by hundreds of ocean advocates in our community, and I won’t list them all. We came together to form the Friends of the Mariana Trench, who led the public engagement in the community from the summer of 2008 until the designation in 2009.
On the day of the monument’s designation, after a public campaign to build support, Governor Fitial, Senate President Reyes, and House Speaker Palacios announced their support for the designation of the monument. This was in large part due to the overwhelming local support at the time, and the intense public campaign.
This slide shows what we initially proposed on the left, and what our community finally agreed upon on the right. The differences in these two maps shows that there was a lot of community engagement and compromise.
Other communities around the country have similar stories. I mentioned the monument in Hawaii, and there are three others. Today the United States has five marine national monuments, all designated or expanded or rolled back or reinstated between 2006 and today. When the Biden administration announced that the United States had protected about “one third” of US oceans, these five monuments were doing about 99% of that work.
The communities attached to these monuments are very proud of the work they’ve put in to protect these places. The big lesson I’ve learned over 20 years is that conservation takes a long time. And it takes a lot of effort. And it takes a lot of people. Alright, so that was three lessons, but who’s counting.
The Trump administration is attempting to open the entirety of the NE Canyons & Seamounts and the Rose Atoll monuments, and vast portions of Mariana Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, and Papahanaumokuakea monuments, to industrial fishing. This is a combined area of 2.3 million square kilometers—twice the size of Greenland—being stripped of its protections.
Our communities have responded with great disappointment. Sen. Chris Barnett told media "It's disappointing to see the rollback of protections like these, for what really looks like partisan and political reasons.”
Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey put out a joint statement, “President Trump’s rollback of protections goes against clear legal precedent, creating the risks and uncertainty—both legal and environmental—that have been hallmarks of his administration.”
The American Samoa delegate to the US Congress released a statement saying she “remains convinced that Rose Atoll should be off limits, her longstanding position, especially as she respects the cultural rights of the people of Manu‘a”
Dr. Kekuewa Kikiloi said “President Trump’s most recent proclamation undermines two decades of public and stakeholder effort to protect this special region of Hawai’i.”
And for Pacific Remote Islands and NE Canyons and Seamounts, our partners have already filed lawsuits against these actions.
We are ready to defend these places not just because they are legally protected, but because we have a moral obligation to protect these sacred sanctuaries for the generations to come. We will not stand by. Our partners are already filing suit, and their message is clear: Mr. Trump, we’ll see you in court.
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