Trump opens Pacific national marine monument to commercial fishing
WASHINGTON, DC (HawaiiNewsNow) — President Trump has 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.
“It’s so, so horrible and so stupid, it’s so stupid,” Trump said before signing the order in the Oval Office Thursday.
“We’re talking about a massive ocean and they’re forced to travel four to seven days to go and fish in an area that’s not as good and is probably a little more dangerous,” he added.
The president said his goal is to help American fishers complete against poorly-regulated foreign fleets by letting U.S. boats catch tuna and other pelagic species within the 200 mile border of the monument, which was created by President George W. Bush in 2008 and later expanded by President Obama.
The area includes several islands an atolls, including Wake, Palmyra and Jarvis Island.
A delegation from American Samoa — where the economy is dependent on fishing — had been lobbying the president for the change and joined him in the Oval Office for the signing.
“The fishery in Hawaii fishes for fresh tuna, and so there are 150 vessels,” an unidentified member of the delegation told Trump. “And you’re opening up Johnston Island, which is very close to Hawaii, makes it a lot easier for them to fish.”
Environmental groups are alarmed.
“Trump right here is giving a gift to the industrial fishing fleets. And it’s a direct slap in the face to science, to the ocean, to the generations of Pacific Islanders who fought long and hard to protect these sacred waters,” said Maxx Phillips, the Hawaii and Pacific Islands director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental nonprofit.
But the president’s executive order doesn’t mean that fishing fleets can race to those waters right away, because like other executive orders, it will likely end up before a judge.
“We’re going to be counting on the courts to hold the president to the law. And specifically with respect to the Pacific Islands Heritage Monument, the president simply cannot do what he tried to do today,” said David Henkin, a staff attorney for Earthjustice.
The executive order still requires the U.S. commerce secretary to come up with new rules to allow the fishing.
Henkin also said President Trump’s move ignores the law.
“It’s a one-way ratchet,” he said. “Presidents can establish monuments and put in place protections. They cannot remove them. Only Congress can.”
And environmentalists are pushing back on claims that opening the waters will help fishing fleets.
“Science has really demonstrated that these marine protected areas work, to have an area where fish can be and can reproduce and spill over so that we can have both a healthy environment and healthy fish stocks,” said Phillips.
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