Opening marine monuments to commercial fishing may prove more challenging than President Donald Trump thought when he proclaimed in April he was “unleashing American commercial fishing” in the Pacific Ocean.
A federal court in Hawaii ruled last week that the president cannot reinstate fishing by executive fiat but must use the standard regulatory review and public comment process before allowing about 160 fishermen licensed to harvest tuna, mahi-mahi and wahoo access to roughly 256 million surface acres of ocean in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
The ruling effectively stayed NOAA’s action to implement Trump’s April 27 proclamation rolling back the commercial fishing ban across roughly 400,000 square miles of the Pacific Islands monument about 900 miles southwest of Hawaii.
But despite the legal battle over the Pacific Island monument, the Trump administration’s efforts to open up fishing in marine monuments is expected to continue and could expand to a different large monument much closer to Hawaii.
