WASHINGTON — Guam Delegate James C. Moylan applauded the signing of a Guam law prohibiting and deterring seabed mining in Guam’s waters and surrounding sea.
The measure, Senator Therese Terlaje’s Bill 253-38, allows the Port Authority of Guam to delay or deny port entry or departure for any vessel that a federal or other agency has notified the port has engaged in activity violating laws or rules on environmental protection, maritime transportation, trafficking of illegal contraband, or the collection or extraction of undersea minerals.
Moylan commended Governor Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero for signing the measure, Terlaje for her leadership on the legislation, and the Guam Legislature for advancing what he called a unified effort to protect the marine environment.
“By restricting seabed mining and equipping the Port Authority of Guam with the tools to deter environmental violators, we are sending a clear message: Guam’s marine ecosystems are not for sale, and we will defend our resources from the local shores all the way to the halls of Congress,” Moylan said.
Moylan has consistently backed local opposition to seabed mining in and around Guam waters. Earlier this year he cosigned a letter with four other top local government leaders opposing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s request for information and interest on commercial leasing of outer continental shelf minerals offshore the CNMI. At a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing in January, Moylan said that if the region’s waters are going to be discussed, its voices must be heard “not as an afterthought, but as a requirement.”
Moylan is also a co-sponsor of two bills by Hawaii Rep. Ed Case: H.R. 663, opposing the permitting of deep seabed mining and exploration, and H.R. 664, the American Seabed Protection Act. The bills, introduced last year, were referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Natural Resources, respectively.