Trump opens national marine monument to commercial fishing
Source: The Hill
04/18/25 12:02 PM ET
The Trump administration is opening a national marine monument to commercial fishing, it announced Thursday. The White House issued an executive order that allows for commercial fishing within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, a nearly 500,000 square mile area — double the size of the state of Texas — in the central Pacific Ocean. The monument, which was first established by former President George W. Bush and later expanded by President Obama, contains coral reef and island habitats. Thousands of species can be found there, including coral reefs, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks and manta rays.
In a separate executive order, President Trump indicated that more monuments could similarly be opened to commercial fishing in the future. That order directed the leaders of the Commerce and Interior departments to review all other marine monuments and recommend whether commercial fishing would also be allowed within their boundaries.
“The economic zone around Hawaii and Samoa is huge and it’s exclusively ours, so why wouldn’t we have our fishermen fish there?” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik in the Oval Office. “We were stopping our own fishermen from going off the coast, it’s totally the opposite of common sense,” he added. The order that pertained to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument said that fishing would be allowed between 50 and 200 nautical miles from the coastlines. Only U.S.-flagged vessels or some foreign vessels with American workers will be allowed to fish there.
Trump’s order was criticized by Democrats and activists, who raised concerns about the environment impacts of enabling commercial fishing. “At a time when the climate crisis is threatening our fragile ocean ecosystem and costing us lives and livelihoods every year, President Trump’s response is to gut protections for some of our nation’s most important natural resources,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) in a written statement.
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5255853-trump-commercial-fishing-national-marine-monument/
Link to Rep. Schatz PRESS RELEASE - Schatz Statement On Trump Order Gutting Protections For Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument
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