Trump Lifts Commercial Fishing Ban On Key Protected Area In Central Pacific

Last edited Fri Apr 18, 2025, 06:49 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Civil Beat

Fisheries
Trump Lifts Commercial Fishing Ban On Key Protected Area In Central Pacific
Members of the Trump administration signaled that Papahānaumokuākea, the protected area around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, could be next.
By Marcel Honoré / About 7 hours ago
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President Donald Trump has opened one the largest protected swaths of the Central Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing, lifting a ban that sought to help conserve the region’s imperiled fish, shark, sea turtles, marine mammals and other species.

With that executive order, which Trump signed Thursday, U.S. fishing fleets are poised to again access waters within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. That area, previously called the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, provides environmental protections to a group of remote islands and atolls, plus about 495,000 square miles of ocean around them.

The move was swiftly condemned by local conservation groups, who called Trump’s order a blow to the effort to protect critical pockets of biodiversity across the Pacific. Environmental law advocates said the order exceeds Trump’s presidential authority and that they’re prepared to press the matter in federal court.

Seafood industry interests, meanwhile, touted the order as a way to reduce regulatory overreach and global trade imbalances linked to industrial fishing.

Read more: https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/04/trump-lifts-commercial-fishing-ban-on-key-protected-area-in-central-pacific/