U.S. President Donald Trump has once again revoked restrictions on commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
The move marks the fourth time that the status of fishing in the region has been changed in the last 10 years since the creation of the monument in 2016 by former U.S. President Barack Obama. Obama used the Antiquities Act to designate the nearly 5,000-square-mile area as the first U.S. marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean and established a set of rules that banned all but lobster and crab fishing in the area, with plans to phase that fishing out by 15 September 2023.
A long string of commercial fishing interests pushed back against that ban, which they said was unnecessary considering existing federal regulations. Fishermen launched an unsuccessful legal challenge that was rejected by an appeals court and turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Then, in 2020, during his first term as president, Trump reopened the monument to commercial fishing with a new proclamation – which brought with it a new set of lawsuits from conservation organizations.
Just hours after former U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he declared he was planning a review of Trump’s actions on national monuments. The fishing industry advocated for the Northeast Seamounts monument to remain open to fishing but were ultimately unsuccessful; the monument was reestablished in 2021 – the third time fishing status in the region was changed.
Trump’s latest presidential proclamation, published on 6 February, has again reopened that monument.
“In my First Term, I reversed the prohibitions placed on Commercial Fishing, but Joe Biden, or whoever was using the AUTOPEN, foolishly reinstated them,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social. “Since Day One, I have taken historic action to END these disastrous policies and today, I signed a Presidential Proclamation to UNLEASH Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, advancing the America First Fishing Policy!”
Saving Seafood Executive Director Bob Vanasse said the move is a recognition of the facts behind commercial fishing in the region.
“Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, fishing activities in federal waters must meet strict sustainability standards, undergo rigorous scientific review, and follow a transparent process that includes stakeholder input and council oversight,” Vanasse said. “Restoring access to the monument area under this framework reaffirms – not undermines – our commitment to conservation.”
Environmental groups once again pushed back on Trump’s reopening of the monument and said the move puts the ecosystem at risk of harm.
“The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the most biologically productive areas in the Atlantic Ocean. It deserves our full protection,” Conservation Law Foundation Senior Counsel Erica Fuller said.
Fuller said the foundation is prepared to fight against the reopening as it has in the past, as a means of ensuring the monument’s fishing restrictions are maintained.
Vanasse said the opposition is expected – and typically misconstrues the actual impacts commercial fishing would have on the region in the monument.
“So, let’s be absolutely clear: Any fishing that resumes in the monument will remain subject to the full force of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a law these same groups routinely hail as a global benchmark for sustainable fishery management,” Vanasse said. “Their objection is not about protecting the ocean; it is about controlling American commercial fishermen and pushing a broader, extremist agenda that seeks to deny citizens the ability to responsibly use our resources, regardless of science or sustainability.”
