The Trump administration removed remaining restrictions on commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, allowing renewed harvests of species already managed by a longstanding array of federal and regional fishing council measures.
The Feb. 6 executive order from President Trump declared that “appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk.”
It’s the fourth presidential proclamation in running duel over fishing on the Northeast Canyons, dating back to former President Barack Obama’s order in 2016 originally designating the nearly 5,000-square mile region offshore of Cape Cod as a monument with commercial fishing restrictions.
Pitched by environmental groups as a means to protect deep-sea corals, whales, sea turtles, and other sensitive marine species, marine monument designations have been opposed by fishermen and federal regional fishery management councils as unnecessary and extreme measures.
Those protests led to the monument being reopened to fishing in 2020 during Trump’s first term in 2020 – a decision then reversed under President Biden a year later in 2021.
In May 2025 Trump announced his intent to fully reopen the Northeast Canyons. In his latest order, Trump takes the position of monument critics, that “all of the fish species described in (Obama’s 2016 declaration) are subject to Federal protections under existing laws and executive department and agency management designations.”
Trump said the decision now “to allow for well-regulated commercial fishing use, in accordance with and pursuant to existing statutory authorities, is in the public interest and that the objects in the monument can be, and are currently, protected pursuant to carefully tailored regulation and management under existing Federal law.”
Fishing advocates who have battled monument proponents for more than a decade applauded the new reversal.
“This decision reflects a clear understanding of a simple truth: commercial fishing in the United States is already governed by the most comprehensive, science-based, and publicly accountable regulatory system in the world,” said Robert Vanasse, execurive director of the industry group Saving Seafood.
“Restoring access to the monument area under this framework reaffirms—not undermines—our commitment to conservation,” said Vanasse. Reimposing restrictions during the Biden administration “actively disregarded the voices of the very councils and communities entrusted with managing our marine resources. Their closed-door approach and lack of transparency sent a message: facts and stakeholders were not welcome in their decision-making process.”
