The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a vital hotspot of marine biodiversity. Photo: NOAA
April 18, 2025 (Boston, MA) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to roll back protections for marine national monuments. The order calls for a review of all existing marine national monuments to assess opening them to commercial fishing as he did in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) released the following statement in response.
“The Trump administration is yet again putting our marine national monuments, and all they safeguard, at risk,” said Priscilla Brooks, CLF Vice President for Ocean Conservation. “This reckless attack on our marine national monuments sacrifices endangered wildlife, scientific progress, and centuries of natural heritage for short-term gain.”
The order also directs the Secretary of Commerce to “immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.”
Brooks added: “The order claims an attempt to streamline and improve fisheries regulations, but doing so is undermined by the administration’s gutting and defunding of vital agencies like NOAA. Without proper funding and support, NOAA can’t provide the scientific data fishermen and others rely on and it cannot help recover struggling fish stocks. This order further risks rolling back critical fishery management actions necessary to rebuild depleted fish populations, threatening the very foundation of sustainable fisheries and the livelihoods of those who depend upon them.”
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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