Opponents of several national monuments recently created by U.S. President Barack Obama, including the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, are petitioning President-elect Donald Trump to undo their designation.
Robert Vanasse, executive director of the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, which represents fishing organizations and businesses, said his group and others that fought the recent designation of the monuments are exploring their political options for reversing Obama’s decisions in light of the results of the recent national election. Vanasse told the Portland Press Herald he’s hopeful Trump, who campaigned on a platform of loosening environmental regulations, and the Republican-controlled Congress will explore all their available options for undoing the designation of the protected areas.
“In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, I would say there is a lot of talk about what can be done,” Vanasse said. “Clearly the companies and fishermen that have been economically damaged by the actions of the Obama administration are thinking about what in this new (political) environment – president, House and Senate – might be possible.”
Obama designated Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument on 15 September, protecting a 4,900-square-mile patch of ocean from commercial fishing, though lobster and crab fishing will be allowed for another seven years. The fishing ban in those protected waters went into effect on Monday, 7 November.
President-elect Trump has also expressed a desire to cull back the exercise of the executive decree, including the use of the Antiquities Act, which was used by Obama to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii.
An analysis of national monuments and the law conducted by the Congressional Research Service in September 2016 found little precedent for abolishing a national monument designation.
“The Antiquities Act does not expressly authorize a president to abolish a national monument established by an earlier presidential proclamation, and no president has done so,” it said. “There have been no court cases deciding the issue of the authority of the president to abolish a national monument.”
