April 17, 2025

President Donald Trump is moving to shrink or eliminate protection in existing National Monuments and open Pacific Monuments to commercial fishing.

President Trump signed an executive order that opens up commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage National Marine Monument, covering about 490,000 square miles of ocean southwest of Hawaii.

Designated a Marine National Monument under President GW Bush in 2009, the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, formerly known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, encompasses seven islands, atolls, and reefs: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Wake Atoll. These are located in the central Pacific Ocean. 

These islands protect some of the most undisturbed and pristine coral reef ecosystems in the Pacific, protecting endangered sharks, sea turtles and marine mammals.

President Barack Obama then expanded the monument more than fivefold in 2014 by pushing the boundary out to the federal limit of 200 miles around all the islands and atolls except Palmyra/Kingman and Baker and Howland.

Scientific studies have demonstrated that restricting fishing within protected areas like the monument increases the abundance of fish within the reserve, and increases the abundance of fish available to commercial fishers in waters outside the protected areas

The removal of protected status under Executive Order has been proved in court under the last Trump Administration to violate the Antiquities Act. New litigation from environmental groups is pending as the Department introduced its plan in late February and in light of the new executive order.

Please share this petition and tell the Trump Administration that marine protected areas are critical to combat extinction, preserve coral reefs and benefit fisheries.

Hands off our Marine Monuments!