Washington (Washington Insider Magazine) – Experts warn that President Trump’s decision to relax fishing rules in the Pacific Islands could harm marine life and lead to illegal fishing.
As reported by The Guardian, conservationists are raising concerns over Donald Trump’s recent move to reverse fishing regulations in the Pacific Islands Heritage National Monument, an area covering nearly 500,000 square miles.
Trump’s recent decision to allow commercial fishing in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments has raised alarms about potential long-term environmental harm.
How Trump’s fishing policy threatens marine ecosystems & species?
The Pacific Islands Heritage Monument, created by George W. Bush in 2009 and expanded by Barack Obama in 2014, includes seven protected islands, atolls, and 165 biodiversity-rich seamounts.
The monument hosts numerous endangered species, including 22 types of seabirds, green and hawksbill turtles, giant clams, bumphead parrotfish, dolphins, and whales. It also protects fragile ecosystems surrounding some of the oldest coral colonies in the world.
Kingman Reef, the most undisturbed coral reef in the US, is home to a unique population of apex predators. UNESCO has recognized the reef for having the highest concentration of these predators in any studied coral ecosystem. The reef backs various shark species, including grey reef sharks, oceanic white tips, hammerheads, and silky sharks.
Trump’s fishing proclamation sparks environmental concerns
President Trump’s new proclamation, strongly backed by American Samoan tuna lobbyists, allows US-flagged vessels to fish commercially within 50 to 200 nautical miles of the monument. This move coincides with a record-breaking coral bleaching event that has devastated over 80% of global reefs. He also directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to remove or amend regulations restricting fishing activities.
In his push to establish the US as the “dominant seafood nation,” Trump criticized the fishing regulations, calling them “so horrible and so stupid.” He argued that American fishers “must travel four to seven days” just to fish in less abundant waters.
What did David Henkin say about Trump’s fishing claims?
David Henkin, a lawyer from the environmental group Earthjustice, criticized Trump’s claim that regulations are hurting American fishers.
He added, “When he is saying that fisher folks from Hawaii or American Samoa need to travel for days to go fish. Well, you need to travel for days to get to these remote Pacific islands. They’re some of the most remote places on Earth … and they’re certainly not right next to Hawaii.”
What did David McGuire say about Trump’s fishing decision?
David McGuire, the founder of the shark conservation group Shark Stewards, stated, “It’s grandstanding … These fishermen don’t travel 2,000 or 3,000 miles … They’re already out there, four or five hundred miles. There is no incentive for them to go to the more central islands.”
He added, “You will no longer have staff, you won’t have the science and you won’t have the management biologists in Washington or elsewhere at universities that are funded by National Fisheries or Noaa.”
What did Arlo Hemphill say about legal fishing and illegal practices?
Arlo Hemphill, the U.S. project lead for Greenpeace’s ocean sanctuaries, stated, “Having a legal commercial fishery provides cover for illegal fishing. If you just see a fishing boat going through waters, you are not there watching what they’re catching.”
What did McCauley say about the impact of Trump’s proclamation on shark conservation?
Douglas McCauley, a marine biology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, warned that the proclamation could affect shark conservation. He said, “You can catch a lot of the tuna that you want, but you also catch and kill many sharks.”
Mr McCauley added, “If you open up a section of ocean that has all of these very long-lived, slow-growing sharks, you can decimate 100 years of conservation in almost 15 minutes of fishing because it takes so long for those sharks to rebound and regrow their populations.”
According to him, President Trump’s proclamation poses risks in several ways, “Either they take a hook and bite onto it or drown because they cannot come up to breathe in a longline fishery, or they are scooped up and drown in the course of purse-seine fishing.”
What did Solomon Kaho’ohalahala say about the interconnectedness of the Pacific Islands?
Solomon Kaho’ohalahala, a prominent Hawaiian leader, pointed out that the islands are linked to the wider ocean, making their preservation as a whole essential.
He said, “It’s an integrated kind of ecosystem that isn’t isolated by just the islands themselves … It’s difficult to think that we can divide them into separate areas and then be successful in preserving all of them. It doesn’t work that way.”
Mr Kaho’ohalahala added, “Opening this sacred place for exploitation is short-sighted and does not consider current or future generations of Pacific People who rely on a healthy ocean, and know this special ocean space as our ancestral home.”
US-flagged fishing efforts in the Pacific Islands
A recent study from 2023 reveals that over the past five years, the US-flagged purse-seine fleet focused only 0.52% of its fishing efforts on the two designated areas in the Pacific Islands area where commercial fishing is permitted.
