Marianas Trench Marine National Monument
Pacific Region
 

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News Release - Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Advisory Council Inaugural Meeting (May 21, 2012)

Deepsea Challenge

James Cameron has announced his next major undertaking - a dive to the world's deepest point, nearly seven miles below the surface of the ocean. In the coming weeks, the director will climb inside the Deepsea Challenger, a single-pilot submersible vehicle he helped design, and dive to the Challenger Deep, the lowest point in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean 200 miles southwest of Guam.

For more information, click here.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Compatibility Determinations for the Trench and Volcanic Units
of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument

Please first read the summary what a Compatibility Determination is
and why we do them.

Summary - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Compatibility Determinations for the Trench and Volcanic Units of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument

Interim Compatibility Determination for Research, Explorations, Scientific Collections, and Surveys

Interim Compatibility Determination for Photography, Videography, Filming, or Audio Recording (commercial, news, and educational)

 

Photo of Champagne vent at NW Eifuku volcano

On January 6, 2009, President George W. Bush established the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906.  The monument incorporates approximately 95,216 square miles within three units in the Mariana Archipelago (see map).  The Mariana Trench Unit is almost 1,100 miles long and 44 miles wide and includes only the submerged lands.  The Volcanic Unit consists of small circles (2.3 miles in diameter) around 21 undersea mud volcanoes and thermal vents along the Mariana Arc, again only the submerged lands.  The Islands Unit includes only the waters and submerged lands of the three northernmost Mariana Islands, Farallon de Pajaros or Uracas, Maug, and Asuncion, below the mean low water line.

Champagne vent at NW Eifuku volcano - Photo credit NOAA  

Presidential Proclamation 8335, which established the monument, gave the Secretary of the Interior management responsibility for the monument, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce.  It prohibits commercial fishing within the monument, but gives the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, primary responsibility for managing fishery-related activities.  In addition, the agencies are to consult with the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in managing the monument.

On January 16, 2009, the Secretary of the Interior delegated his management responsibilities for the monument to the Fish and Wildlife Service through Secretary’s Order 3284.  The Secretary’s Order also placed two of the units (the Mariana Trench and Volcanic Units) within the National Wildlife Refuge System as the Mariana Trench and Mariana Arc of Fire National WIldlife Refuges. Click here for a map of the refuges.

Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Fact Sheet (pdf 2.02MB)

For more information:
 Susan White, Project Leader
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Pacific Reefs NWRC
300 Ala Moana Boulevard
Room 5-231, Box 50167
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96850
(808) 792-9560
(808) 792-9586 fax
E-Mail: Pacific_Reefs@fws.gov
Last updated: May 24, 2012