President Donald Trump revoked a ban Friday on commercial fishing inside a 3.1-million-acre marine national monument, opening up a previously protected swath of the Atlantic Ocean to industry.
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — the only one of five marine monuments located in the Atlantic Ocean — was created to conserve four underwater extinct volcanoes, called seamounts, and three canyons, some reaching depths of more than a mile. The monument located about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is also home to unique deep-sea corals, endangered whales and scores of other marine species.
Since returning to office last year, Trump has pushed to open up marine monuments to commercial fishing, saying overregulation has disadvantaged the American fishing industry compared to foreign competitors. In April, Trump overturned a fishing ban in a sprawling Pacific Ocean monument, a move fought by environmentalists who have argued that increasing access to protected areas will harm fishing stocks.
Administration officials have also expressed skepticism of the Antiquities Act of 1906 that allows presidents to protect both land and water through the creation of national monuments, but Trump did not alter the boundaries of the Atlantic monument established in 2016 by former President Barack Obama.
In his proclamation, Trump wrote that other federal laws — specifically the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act — are sufficient to protect the marine and natural resources inside the monument, which is managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA.
“I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk,” Trump wrote.
The Atlantic monument has been politically charged ever since it was first created. Trump issued a similar order in 2020, at the end of his first term, which was subsequently overturned the following year by President Joe Biden.
The fishing industry cheered Trump’s decision.
Bob Vanasse, executive director of the industry trade group Saving Seafood, said in a statement that “commercial fishing in the United States is already governed by the most comprehensive, science-based, and publicly accountable regulatory system in the world.”
Vanasse added, “Restoring access to the monument area under this framework reaffirms — not undermines — our commitment to conservation.”
Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said in an emailed statement that the group is “grateful” to Trump and vowed the industry will protect the waters inside the monument because “the commercial fishing industry cannot survive without pristine waters.”
But critics, including Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, vowed to fight it.
“This natural treasure should be preserved for future generations, not endangered by industrial fishing,” he added. “I’ll continue this fight.”
The sprawling marine national monument — larger in size than Yellowstone National Park — is described by FWS on its website as “a living laboratory” that can provide “a greater understanding of our ocean’s complex ecosystems.”
Rolling back protections for the site is “hugely misguided,” Blumenthal said in a statement.
Biden’s 2021 order reestablishing the fishing ban noted the need “to preserve the vulnerable deep marine ecosystems of the Atlantic canyons and seamounts, which are widely known as natural laboratories for the long-term study of benthic ecology due to their rich biodiversity of important deep-sea corals, endangered whales, endangered and threatened sea turtles, other marine mammals, and numerous fish and invertebrate species.”
Brad Sewell, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s managing director of oceans, said the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts’ status as a marine national monument should mean “that it’s permanently protected from damage by commercial fishing and other extractive activities.”
As such, Sewell said, “Trump’s move to dismantle those protections is unlawful, and we’re confident that it won’t stand.”
Oceana Senior Campaign Director Gib Brogan said that if it is implemented, “the Trump administration is risking deep-sea corals, endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale, and historic fisheries that define our New England coastal heritage.”
Brogan added, “This proclamation turns back the progress that has made U.S. fisheries some of the best-managed in the world and will only hurt American fishers and businesses.”
Economics vs. protection?
Trump over the past year has argued that America should be dominating the commercial fishing industry.
Instead, NOAA Fisheries reported in August, imports dominate the U.S. edible fisheries product market, accounting for roughly 90 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States.
But so far opening up monuments to fishing has been slow going. After Trump in April issued a proclamation that allowed commercial fishing in about 80 percent of the 490,000-square-mile Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, conservation groups and Native Hawaiian organizations went to court.
That monument was established by former President George W. Bush in 2009 and expanded by Obama five years later.
Judge Micah Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii — appointed to the bench by Biden in 2024 — issued an order in August blocking commercial fishing in the monument until the merits of the case are decided in court.
Trump’s April proclamation on the Pacific marine monument was accompanied by an executive order that directed the Commerce and Interior departments to conduct a review of all marine national monuments and issue recommendations about any that should be opened to commercial fishing.
“Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” Trump wrote in the order, titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.”
Trump’s order also directed the eight U.S. fishery management councils, which were established by the the Magnuson-Stevens Act, to identify and submit deregulatory recommendations to help improve domestic fishing markets by Sept. 30.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council announced in September 2025 its support for lifting fishing bans in the nation’s four Pacific marine national monuments — Mariana Trench, Pacific Islands Heritage, Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll. In doing so, the council cited the need to guard against foreign encroachment on U.S. fishing grounds and to help offset the enormous volume of imports that dominates domestic seafood consumption.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in August 2025 approved recommendations that included reopening the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.
Mary Sabo, a spokesperson for the mid-Atlantic council, said Trump’s latest proclamation “aligns with the Council’s previous recommendations” from August, and as far back as 2016.
Trump’s Friday proclamation would ensure that fishing in the marine monument is handled through the same “science-based, participatory process” as other areas, Sabo said Monday in an email.
“We believe this approach provides the best path for balancing sustainable fishing opportunities with the protection of important marine ecosystems,” Sabo added.
But there are also economic risks, according to a group of more than 230 scientists and 53 ocean conservation organizations.
The coalition in October 2025 sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum warning them that opening up marine national monuments to “industrial-scale fishing” not only endangers “sensitive ocean ecosystems,” but also “the local economies that rely on them” if permanent damage is caused.
Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Friday that they believe there will be permanent damage to coral reefs and marine life.
Monsell said the group strongly disagrees with Trump’s statements that current laws are strong enough to protect the “vulnerable animals like the endangered sperm whale” that rely on the protected marine sanctuary for survival.
“It’s illegal and unconscionable for Trump to try to strip away safeguards just to throw commercial fishing a few more bucks,” Monsell said.
Scott Streater can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
