94 



COMMONWEALTH OF 



THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS 



Statement of Jesus C. Borja 



June 1, 1995 



Pacific, gathering oceanographic and biological data. The Com- 

 mittee noted, however, that the fishing industry in the Norther 

 Marianas had been totally destroyed by the war. 



Our islands have endured four centuries of colonial domina- 

 tion by outsiders. As we adopted the new technologies brought by 

 these outsiders, we have lost some of our highly-developed tradi- 

 tional skills and technologies . The arts of ocean canoe-making 

 and astral navigation have been almost forgotten, but our seafar- 

 ing and high-seas fishing tradition continues. Now our fishermen 

 roam far beyond the horizon in Bayliners instead of proas to har- 

 vest the resources of the waters surrounding our islands. 



The WESPAC study 



In 1989, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management 

 Council commissioned a study of indigenous fishing rights in the 

 Northern Mariana Islands. The study evaluated the historical, 

 archeological and ethnological evidence of indigenous fishing 



12 



United States, Committee to Study the Naval Administration 



of Guam and American Samoa (the Hopkins Committee), Report for 

 the Secretary [of the Navy] on the Civil Governments of Guam and 

 American Samoa, "Discussion and Explanation" at 35 (1947). One 

 of the last acts of the Japanese before the Allied invasion of 

 the Northern Marianas was to scuttle the fishing fleet. J. Ames- 

 bury, R. Hunter-Anderson & E. Wells, supra , note 2, at 11. 



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