A nautical Pandora’s box has been flung agape. On April 17, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will, among other fishery-related actions, lift commercial fishing restrictions within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. Hard-won protections across the 490,000 square miles of open ocean will be largely repealed, allowing longline fleets to harvest an array of aquatic life thriving beneath the surface, potentially before year’s end. Not a wise plan.
Fishing industry advocates have for years fought to gain access to the monument, created by President George W. Bush in 2009, only to be rebuffed. A subsequent expansion and fishing ban implemented by President Barack Obama in 2014 was salt on the wound. Fishermen argue that denying entry into those fertile waters — made even more bountiful thanks to over 15 years of shelter — is crimping an economy that could be booming.
Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council who was at the Oval Office signing, told Trump it is in Hawaii’s interest to enable the state’s longline fleet of 150 vessels to harvest tuna and swordfish at the new fishing grounds. Despite repeated requests from the Star-Advertiser on this important topic,
Simonds curiously declined to elaborate.
Not shy about discussing potential upside was Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, who said the industry supports 10,000 jobs with an economic impact of up to $900 million a year. But “dockside values” are suffering, reaching a low of $110 million in 2024. Kingma also notes 70% to 80% of longline catch stays in Hawaii, where residents are particularly partial to sashimi-grade fish.
So lifting the ban will be good for business, and better for local bellies. But for how long, and at what cost?
The Trump administration wants to leverage America’s abundant ocean resources to become a “dominant seafood leader,” but supply is exactly what is at risk with relaxed restrictions. That and ecological sustainability. Safeguards, such as the Endangered Species Act, are in place to check overzealous industry, but those guardrails might not be sufficient when dealing with difficult-to-monitor migratory fish. Here, too, bulwarks are being quickly eroded, as Trump this month proposed a rule change to reinterpret “harm,” as prohibited by the act, to mean the direct killing or collecting of a specific animal or plant. Hardly a decision rooted in responsible, holistic ecology.
Maxx Phillips, Hawaii and Pacific island director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, warns that international fleets, which greatly outnumber U.S.-flagged vessels, might encroach and potentially overrun monument fisheries, where stock species populations can replenish. According to a 2022 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Asia in 2020 boasted about 2.7 million fishing vessels — about two-thirds of the global total. China alone accounted for 564,000 vessels, despite working for nearly a decade to scale down its world’s-largest fleet. Should foreign fishermen begin to move in on the fringes, the results could be disastrous.
Sea life resources have been kept in careful balance through the very mechanisms now due for destruction. And though the order mentions “ethical sourcing,” few provisions for follow-through are delineated. Instead, the administration appears to be thumbing its nose at scientists, activists and decades of research, in favor of financial gain.
It is unclear when the Pacific monument’s moratorium lifts. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has 180 days to review all marine national monuments and deliver findings on whether they, too, should be opened to commercial fishing. With one domino already tumbling, fears are that the 583,000-square-mile Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — a World Heritage site that holds deep cultural significance to Native Hawaiians and boasts the largest contiguous protected conservation area under U.S. control — will be next to fall.
This administration is treading in risky, uncharted
waters.
