POV: You're navigating ocean policy in Palau

Planting giant clams on a reef, riding a moped across an island, birding in the jungle, and meeting a former president were more than just cool perks of a summer fellowship for Sophia Siegel, a recent graduate of the Earth systems undergraduate and coterminal master’s programs in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. These experiences helped Siegel appreciate the challenge of balancing priorities between people, culture, ecosystems, and economics in a marine protected area larger than the state of California.

With support from the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and the Woods Institute’s Environment and Policy Internships (EPIC) program, Siegel spent the summer of 2025 embedded in the policy team at the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC). There, she authored a report informing an ongoing marine spatial planning effort in the Republic of Palau, an archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean. Drawing on firsthand experience of island life as well as ecological and socioeconomic dynamics, she synthesized and summarized assessments related to potential amendments to the Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) in light of a post-COVID economic slowdown. 

“The ocean is just so close at hand in everything that you do in Palau,” said Siegel. “The wind is coming in through the windows of your house, the sea is battering you from outside, and people are eating fish that they caught from the reef.”

Protecting the ocean, sustaining a nation

The ocean surrounding Palau is home to more than 800 recorded animal species, including the endangered hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles, seabirds, sharks, and manta rays, as well as food sources such as tuna,  wahoo, and mahi-mahi.

In 2015, Palau initiated a five-year transitional period to establish and fully implement the Palau National Marine Sanctuary – a landmark undertaking that at its core aimed to protect vital ocean resources in the face of climate change and habitat degradation by banning all fishing in 80 percent of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

To strengthen the nation’s domestic fishing sector, the remaining 20 percent of the Exclusive Economic Zone is open only to commercial fishing in the open ocean and artisanal fishing along the islands’ outer coasts. PICRC is one of three organizations responsible for oversight of the PNMS through its administrative role in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and the Environment in a management role and the Ministry of Justice in an enforcement role.

By preserving critically important and beautiful open ocean and reef ecosystems, the sanctuary positions Palau as a pristine destination for ecotourism, fosters traditional values of ocean stewardship and heritage, and enhances the resilience of adjacent fisheries for present and future generations.

Months after the sanctuary came into full effect, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the Pacific and brought Palau’s tourism-dependent economy to a standstill. In 2022, an executive order initiated a marine spatial planning effort to evaluate the PNMS in the context of a post-COVID economy. A number of modifications have since been proposed to reform the sanctuary and institute measures for economic relief. These include decreasing the size of the no-take marine reserve, creating a new port, and suspending the moratorium on new commercial fishing licenses. 

At the heart of the effort is a lively debate: what does it look like for Palau to maintain its commitment to ocean health and conservation on the global stage while also exercising economic sovereignty to ensure sustainable development for its people? 

Siegel, who focused on marine chemistry, environmental policy, and economics during her time at Stanford, joined PICRC with the aim of bringing a neutral and balanced review of the existing data to the conversation.

“Having the in-person opportunity with PICRC colleagues to review the materials, synthesize the findings, and meet directly with community members in Palau truly provided for an impactful experience. Sophia was able to distill and communicate a wealth of information such that it would be illuminating for the Olbiil Era Kelulau – Palau's congress – while they are navigating this impactful, long-term decision-making process,” said Eric Hartge, research development manager at the Center for Ocean Solutions and one of Siegel’s mentors.

Learn more about Center for Ocean Solutions engagement throughout Micronesia, including a recently released impact report

An EPIC fellowship

For Siegel and her mentors at PICRC, immersion in Palauan culture and conversations was essential for getting a handle on the range of issues at play.

Each week, Siegel would go spearfishing to catch fish for meals, mindful of the three-fish weekly limit. A research team invited her to assist with fieldwork to seed a reef with giant clams, a marine species with ties to Palauan mythology and livelihoods, under threat from coral reef degradation. Siegel hiked on lush trails searching for birds and tasted local cuisine.

Siegel would take her moped to interview community members around the islands and better understand how they interact with the sanctuary.  She met with a U.S. ambassador to Palau as well as former president of Palau Tommy Remengasau Jr., who signed the PNMS into law. Officers with the Division of Marine Law Enforcement described how they track fishing and monitor illicit activity in the sanctuary, and scientists took Siegel and PICRC staff into the control room aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to demonstrate how remotely operated vehicles can help characterize the biology and topography of the deep sea within the PNMS.

“It was important for me to try and understand everybody’s perspectives, outlooks, and different takes on the issue, even if it wasn’t explicitly included in the document I produced,” said Siegel. “It helped form my perspective and ultimately shaped how I presented the data.”

In October 2025 after the conclusion of Siegel's fellowship, Palau’s congress reviewed her analysis, a document which synthesized and summarized insights from more than 200 pages of reports and stakeholder perspectives. Siegel noted that she drew from her experience as an investigative journal intern at the Bill Lane Center for the American West to understand how different agencies interpreted the same data and the tension between multiple policy goals.

For example, the report highlighted that some of the commissioned analyses, when considered separately, may not fully capture downstream benefits of the sanctuary, such as food security from local fishing and increased opportunities for research. Siegel’s report suggested that an interdisciplinary approach, one that considers these analyses together rather than in isolation, could offer a more complete picture for decision-makers. The marine spatial planning effort is ongoing and many of the proposed measures are still under consideration.

Siegel’s interest in the ocean predates her time at Stanford. She recalled meeting a marine law enforcement officer in Belize while she was on a family vacation in high school, an encounter which inspired one of her college application essays. Although the EPIC fellowship came late in her Stanford experience – after her senior year – it solidified her desire to work in an ocean career after graduation.

“I came to Stanford saying, ‘I have no idea what I want to do,’ and it turns out that I've known what I wanted to be the whole time,” said Siegel.