The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) took final action to reopen commercial fishing in multiple marine monuments, including the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
“This is not about removing monument protections; it’s about restoring sustainable fishing in limited areas under fishery regulations the Council has developed over decades,” WPFMC Executive Director Kitty Simonds said in a release. “Those regulations were built to balance access and conservation, and that remains the Council’s guiding principle under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”
The action comes nearly a year after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation directing the government to restore commercial fishing access to large swaths of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. In the proclamation, titled “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,” Trump repeated commercial fishers’ concerns that the ban on fishing in the monument threatened their livelihoods.
“As a result of the prohibitions on commercial fishing, American fishing fleets have lost access to nearly half of the United States’ exclusive economic zone [EEZ] in the Pacific Islands,” the proclamation said. “This has driven American fishermen to fish farther offshore in international waters to compete against poorly regulated and highly subsidized foreign fleets.”
The WPFMC raised those concerns before Trump took office for his second term, and since the proclamation was issued, the council has pushed to restore commercial fishing access.
“In 2009, a large part of American Samoa’s EEZ was closed without consultation, and our people have carried that loss ever since,” Council Chair Nathan Ilaoa said in a release. “This action does not remove the monument; it supports local fishermen, the cannery, and the small businesses that depend on a viable fishing economy.”
On 26 March, the council voted to recommend allowing commercial fishing in Pacific Islands Heritage from 50 to 200 nautical miles seaward of Jarvis and Wake Islands and the Johnston Atoll. The council also recommended opening fishing 12 to 50 nautical miles off of Rose Atoll and from 0 to 50 nautical miles off the Mariana Trench. Additionally, WPFMC recommended opening the area from 3 to 200 nautical miles off of Papahānaumokuākea but only for bottomfish and pelagic fisheries.
“We opposed the monument from the beginning, but our people were given many promises about tourism and new opportunities that never came,” Council Member Sylvan Igisomar of the Northern Mariana Islands said in a release. “Nearly 20 years later, our economy is still struggling, and it is unfair that Pacific communities continue to carry this burden while receiving so little in return from resources that are the lifeblood of our islands. Monuments and sanctuaries are born out of emotions. The MSA is commonsense management. Regulations are developed from the bottom up and based on scientific assessments.”
The council’s recommendations will need to be approved by NOAA Fisheries before going into effect.
