In April 2025, President Donald Trump proposed shrinking or eliminating protection and opening existing Pacific Marine National Monuments to commercial fishing.

Following this announcement, at the behest of commercial fishing interests, the president proposed opening the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument (est 2009) and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (2007)  and National Marine Sanctuary (2025) were also opened by Executive Order.

This order opened USA waters to commercial fishing, supported by the group WESPAC. On August 8, 2025, a federal district court in Honolulu, following a lawsuit, ordering an immediate halt to commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. 

The first Marine National Monument to be opened to commercial fishing was proposed on April 17, 2025 when 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. That monument has now been placed at risk to active commercial fishing, and with it loss of sharks, sea turtles and seabirds killed as bycatch. 

On June 11, he also signed Executive Order 1426, which gave the nation’s regional fishery councils 180 days to review management of the country’s five marine national monuments and submit recommendations to open them or keep them closed. Four of the five Marine National Monuments are in the Pacific region. One, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaiʻi, has significant cultural value to indigenous people, and is also a National Marine Sanctuary.

Established by Presidential Proclamation in January 2009 and expanded through Presidential Proclamation in 2014, the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (formerly known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument) is cooperatively managed by the Secretary of Commerce (NOAA) and the Secretary of the Interior (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), with the exception of Wake and Johnston Atolls, which are currently managed by the Department of Defense. National Wildlife Refuges also exist at each of the islands within the Monument, with Howland, Baker, and Jarvis designated as Refuges in 1974; Johnston in 1926; and Kingman and Palmyra Atoll in 2001. 

 Please Sign this Petition to the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Interior Douglas Burgum and the US Congress to halt illegal fishing in the Pacific Marine National Monuments. Share the message that our most pristine, protected reefs and islands are not up for sale, and marine protection exists under US law.

 National monuments safeguard public water and wildlife, enhance the outdoor-recreation economy, protecting trails and wilderness access, and preserve culturally and geographically significant sites.

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 by as much as 50%.

The removal of protected status under Executive Order has previously been proved in court under the last Trump Administration to violate the Antiquities Act.  New litigation by Earth Justice in behalf of Hawaiian cultural groups has been filed in Hawaii's District 9 Federal Court. A court ruling issued August 8 by the Hawaii District 9 court determined that the President did not have the authority to use his Executive Order to open the protected area to fishing. The court’s order declares unlawful and cancels the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) April 25 letter that purported to authorize commercial fishing in the portions of the monument that President Obama protected in 2014.  It is expected this will be appealed by NMFS but is a positive sign for the other two monuments under review.

In June, the administration added Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in American Samoan waters and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and National Marine Sanctuary in Hawaiian waters to the list of our largest marine protected areas to be opened to fishing.

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