The Rongelap Atoll Local
Government (RALGov) has been pushing since 2003 to have
uninhabited Ailingnae Atoll nominated for inclusion as a
World Heritage site as part of its tourism and conservation
plan.
This objective remains to this day, said RALGov councilman
for Ailingnae Atoll and alab Isao Eknilang.
RALGov has already imposed
certain restrictions to ensure proper maintenance of
Ailingnae’s pristine condition, he adds. “We have passed a
resolution that everything in Rongelap shall remain as is,
nothing is to be done to make it polluted or to upset its
natural condition.”
Before anyone steps foot on
Ailingnae they must now “change clothes when they arrive
from Rongelap Atoll in an effort to keep invasive species
like prickly weeds from being introduced,” Eknilang
explains.
Meanwhile, the threat of
illegal fishing and exploitation remains, he said. This was
evident in 2003 when returning to Rongelap from Ailingnae.
Eknilang says he saw a fishing vessel close to shore, “and
although we gave chase the fishing boat was too fast for our
80 horsepower motor boat. We found a long net on the eastern
reef of the atoll, and it was full with sharks and fish. It
was stuck in the reef and we couldn’t pull it up because it
was so heavy with marine life.
Eknilang said they couldn’t
get the boat’s number “and so our ordinance for fining
offenders like this, although passed, has not yet been put
into practice.
“The information that the scientists brought to us (over a
year ago) shows no difference between what we already knew —
that Ailingnae is uniquely pristine,” he says. “It can be a
site for the world.” |
