President Donald Trump opened a vast national monument in the Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing Thursday and indicated he could do the same across other ocean monuments protected by his predecessors.
In a pair of executive actions, including a proclamation targeting a Pacific Ocean monument spanning almost 500,000 square miles, Trump said the United States “should be the world’s dominant seafood leader.”
“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through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” Trump wrote in an order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.”
That order directs the leaders of 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.
