Last week, my family took a vacation to Saipan, the biggest island in CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). I thought that it would be just another tropical island with beautiful beaches and palm trees. Yet there was more than that, and one of those was Managaha Island, a small island off the coast of Saipan. The interesting thing was that Saipan was a small island, and Mangaha was tiny compared to Saipan. Therefore, Managaha almost looked like a deserted island at first glance.

           We took a ferry from Saipan to get into the island. At first glance, it looked like it was from a desktop wallpaper, surrounded by emerald colored waters and lush with palm trees. When we got on the island, there already were numerous tourists swimming on the seaside. Although the island posed a $10 fee per person to limit the number of tourists visiting the island in a day, the island was way too beautiful to block tourists from visiting.

           That made me worry about the environmental damages from teeming ?people? instead of ?fish? on the island. Yet the authorities were trying in various ways to stop such damages. First, they had installed yellow trash cans with the words ?OUR JEWEL SHOULD SHINE? all around the tiny island so that people would throw away less trash. The trash cans seemed quite effective as I couldn?t see a single can of soda on the beach. The second effort was the installment of water free toilets in the bathrooms. Since there weren?t any facilities to take care of the sewage, the authorities had installed such toilets to prevent the leakage of excrement and also conserve water.

           In spite of these efforts, I could sense some damages to the environment because of the excess of people on the island. I discovered that some coral reefs were being damaged because people had stepped on them, and it was being reported that the number of fish was on a slow decline, opposite from the increase of tourists on the island.

           Although it is true that environmental damage is inevitable with people visiting the island, I believe the efforts of the authorities as well as strict restrictions are at their best and capable of preserving the island for future generations to come.

BELOW: AN IMPRESSIVE TRASH CAN!