Category: basics

The world’s oceans are under siege, and Pohnpei — even as remote as it is — has not escaped the damage caused by thoughtless human activity. In addition to the increasingly dire effects of global climate change which are destroying coral reefs around the world, the most immediate threats to the island’s ocean environment include unsustainable fishing practices, piggeries and outhouses near water sources, coral dredging, garbage, mangrove forest destruction, and terrestrial deforestation (often as a result of sakau farming). The latter allows increased run-off and the fouling of inner reefs by sediment.

The good news is that there are many things you, as an individual and a visitor, can do to affect change:

1. Abstain from sportfishing

Despite what sportfishing operators will claim, sportfishing and fishing derbies DO impact the health of fish populations negatively. A single fisherman may not make much of a dent, but a couple hundred sport fishermen and a few derbies a year have a significant effect, eliminating some of the largest individuals of a particular species in the area. This is the primary reason that the Pohnpei Eco-Adventure Guides do not promote sportfishing operations on Pohnpei. Help to eliminate this damaging practice by abstaining from sportfishing entirely and avoiding fishing derbies.

2. Buy only local fish that comply with size and species regulations

Selling fish that are too young to have reached reproductive age is illegal on Pohnpei, but you still find undersized fish in local markets. Not only should you refuse to buy these immature fish, but you should report the market selling the fish to Conservation Society of Pohnpei. Immature fish on the chopping block mean that some fish never had an opportunity to breed and produce young before being killed. This directly reduces the size of fish populations, because those being caught are not being replaced. The success of fishing prohibitions around Pohnpei’s marine protected areas speaks for itself; if you stop killing the fish, they come back.

3. Pick up your garbage / Make Less

Our oceans are being destroyed by our waste. Pohnpei’s landfill is on reclaimed land immediately next to the ocean. In extreme high tides or storms, both of which are becoming more common as a result of global climate change, the edges of the landfill are inundated and the trash goes out into the ocean. Additionally, trash is dumped directly into the ocean at other locations around the island. But the majority of trash in the seas, comes from large industrial countries like the United States and is carried into the Pacific by currents. There is so much garbage in the ocean that there’s a permanent named patch called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is an area where floating plastic garbage is concentrated by currents. This trash is ingested by fish, birds, turtles and other sea creatures — killing them. The first step in fighting the garbage problem is to make less garbage by being smarter about what you consume (REDUCE). The second step is to REUSE everything you possibly can for as long as you possibly can. The third step is to RECYCLE everything that can be. But this last one is last for a reason — if you aren’t doing the other two steps first, you’re part of the problem. Recycling is expensive, uses a lot of resources, and is inefficient — especially on a remote island — so it should be a last resort.

4. Avoid use of plastic bags / one-time use bottles and containers

Given the information in the last point, this should be self-explanatory. Get yourself some good Tupperwear and a couple of durable, long-lasting metal or heavy-duty plastic water bottles and use those exclusively for all drinking and food-storage for years (or decades) to come. Don’t buy plastic bags or any other plastic materials that are used once and then thrown away. Don’t use Styrofoam or plastic take-out containers — bring your reusable container when you go out. Don’t use disposable plastic straws or disposable cups — bring your own reusable metal or plastic straw and cup. If we all shun these products, the industry will stop producing them.

5. Take nothing from the marine environment

Divers are familiar with this rule. Everything that exists in the marine ecosystem is there for a reason and has a purpose. When we take shells, coral, seastars, or other things from the ocean, we’re disrupting the natural structure of the ecosystem and preventing it from working the way it should. Enjoy nature with your eyes, but leave it where it is to live as it was supposed to. Take only pictures, leave only bubbles.

6. Exercise care when diving, snorkeling, or paddling to avoid damage to the reefs

Coral is very fragile and grows near the surface. When paddling, be mindful of tides and depth. Make sure you aren’t hitting the reef with your paddle or the hull of your canoe or kayak. The same goes for snorkeling and diving. Practice good buoyancy control. Keep a reasonable distance from the reef itself and watch your fins — make sure you aren’t inadvertently kicking anything.

7. Follow all MPA rules

Visit the MPA page for rules and MPA locations. The rules are there, not to annoy you or restrict your fun, but to keep the natural resources in those areas safe and healthy for generations to come. If you don’t follow the rules, you’re contributing to the destruction of those resources, plain and simple.

8. Write letters to Pohnpei’s governor (Marcelo Peterson), lt. governor (Reed B. Oliver) and acting administrator of fisheries and aquaculture (Clay Hedson) expressing support for conservation measures and encouraging strict prohibitions against dredging, sand-mining, mangrove removal, upland sakau cultivation, and destructive fishing practices

Office of the Governor
Pohnpei State Government
Kolonia, Pohnpei 96941 FM
Tel: 691.320.2235
Fax: 691.320.2505

9. Help financially support Conservation Society of Pohnpei (www.serehd.org) and Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org)

Both of these organizations work very hard locally to protect the environment. Directly funding them helps them be successful.

10. Minimize your carbon footprint

Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to your the various processes and forms of consumption that make up your life. Carbon emissions related to human activity are the cause of global climate change. There’s a lot of misconception about what is most important in reducing your personal carbon footprint. Here are some of the key things to focus on:

1. Cut Your Meat Consumption
   In the U.S., government stats on household CO² footprints indicated that food was the biggest factor in a person’s carbon footprint. In short, what you eat matters because of the way the things you eat are produced. Lifestock is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse emissions worldwide (in the form of methane) — more than the worldwide transport network (which is about 14%). If you eat a lot of meat in your diet, you are contributing to the growth of the meat industry and supporting the negative effects on the environment of all those animals being raised for your table. That doesn’t mean you have to become a vegan, but you can greatly reduce your personal carbon footprint by cutting down significantly on your meat intake. Large mammals produce the most emissions — particularly cattle. One kilo of beef does as much damage to the environment as driving your car 160 miles. So make beef a once-in-awhile thing. When you do eat it, make sure it’s from grass-fed, free-range cows, which produce less emissions than feedlot cattle. Cheap beef is the worst; avoid it.
2. Avoid Produce Waste
   Vegetarians have as much to worry about as dedicated carnivores. Emissions from produce decomposition accounts for a big part of those numbers in the previous paragraph. Large-scale farming and grocery operations are extremely wasteful and about a third of what’s grown is thrown away before even reaching the stores. Another third is thrown away at the store level when it doesn’t sell. That’s more than half of all the food grown. Small farm operations are generally less wasteful because they have more to lose financially by not getting everything to the consumer. Furthermore, transportation of produce is an issue. The further something has to travel to get to you, the more CO² emissions are involved. That means doing your best to buy from small, local farms as much as possible and staying away from imported goods within reason. To avoid wasting produce you’ve bought, keep it stored properly and make a meal plan so it gets eaten before it spoils.
3. Cut Your Electricity Use at Home
   Lights are actually not the area where we use the most electricity in our homes. It’s cooling and heating — and we need more of both if we have a poorly-insulated home. About a third of the energy used to heat and cool people’s homes is lost through the walls and roof. On Pohnpei, concrete homes make zero sense. They have no insulation at all. They heat up like an oven when it’s hot and soak up moisture the rest of the time. Wherever you live, you can reduce your carbon footprint a great deal by upgrading your house, making sure it’s well-insulated, has the right windows and doors, and utilizes natural airflow for cooling instead of air-conditioning.
4. Buy Less
   The next thing on the list is consumption. Leisure goods and services account for more CO² than private transport does. When you add in clothing, footwear and household goods, that makes up a third of our emissions from consumption. So, though riding your bike instead of driving is great, you’re forgetting a bigger problem if you don’t curb your buying habits as well. The more we buy, the more we’re contributing to all the processes surrounding those products: the manufacturing, the transportation, the packaging, and the waste when the product is thrown away. Consider the following example. You buy a new t-shirt from a big store. You’ve just added to your footprint the impacts of (1) the farm machinery where the textiles were grown, (2) the factory where the raw materials were processed, (3) the factory where it was made into clothing, (4) the surface transport that brought the product to the store, (5) the store that stocked and displayed the shirt, and (6) the vehicle used to travel back and forth from home to store. A lot of what we buy, we don’t need, and once you start realizing that and thinking carefully before buying, it’s easy to cut out a lot. Every time you decide not to buy something, you cut your footprint a little bit. If you really can’t live without something, try getting it used. Resale stores are becoming more and more common.
5. Spend More Time Outdoors
   What does a person do indoors? Chances are, many people spend most of their indoor time doing things like watching TV, staring at a computer, and talking on or browsing their smartphone, etc. All of those activities are connected to the manufacture and consumption of the products needed to do them. So they tie into #4 above. If you spend your leisure time outdoors, hiking, paddling, swimming, etc., you need that other stuff less and you’ll be less inclined to stock your house with footprint-increasing products.
6. Cut Down on Your Flying
   Why is this one listed before driving? Because commercial flying generally gives you a bigger carbon footprint than driving does. It is true that cars worldwide produce more CO² than planes, but that’s because there are many, many more cars and they’re much cheaper to use than planes AND most of them are carrying just ONE person. All of that is bad and we need to fix it. But, the numbers don’t lie — when you fly somewhere, in most cases, you are personally responsible for more carbon output than if you drove. Jet fuel produces slightly more CO² per gallon than automobile fuel, but the real difference is all the fuel that planes waste on the runway, heating and cooling their interiors, filtering the air inside the plane, landing and taking off, accelerating to the speed necessary to take to the air, and ascending to the cruising altitude. Longer flights, for this reason, are more efficient. Short commuter flights are the worst, because they waste the most. Also, another problem with flying is when carriers don’t fill their flights. The overall impact of that one flight is nearly the same regardless of how many people are on the flight, but your personal footprint goes up the more empty seats there are on the plane, because the impact gets divided among a smaller number of people.
7. Drive Less
   About 14% of global emissions come from transportation, which includes flying, driving, shipping, etc. Cars, trucks, and trains account for the biggest chunk, because there are so many of all of these types of vehicles around the world and they’re cheap enough that most people can afford to use them. In some places, you just can’t get by without a car because public transportation is poor and things are far apart. But, it’s our job to do everything we can to drive less, and when we do drive, to drive more efficiently, use efficient vehicles, use fuel that creates less emissions, etc. Don’t buy the big truck or SUV. Get an efficient sedan instead, or a hybrid or electric car if you can afford it. Bike or walk whenever possible. Ride electric trolleys, light commuter trains, and subways whenever possible.
8. Read More
   This one is surprisingly easy, fun, and impacting. Reading makes you smarter and more knowledgeable. We all know that, but it also keeps us away from the types of consumption activities that modern people are drawn to.