A June 11 executive order by President Trump will open some fishing grounds in the U.S. western Pacific, the latest in years of restricting and then reopening national marine monument waters during the Obama, Biden and Trump administrations.

Like Trump’s earlier lifting of restrictions on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument, the western Pacific opening has been long sought by commercial fishermen.

In March the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted to restore commercial fishing access across several U.S. Pacific marine national monuments including the Pacific Islands Heritage, Rose Atoll, Marinas Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monuments to federally managed commercial fisheries.

“By restoring commercial fishing in the remote Pacific, we are creating new economic opportunity for coastal communities and restoring U.S. seafood competitiveness,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in announcing the decision.

Restrictions around the U.S. remote waters date back as far as the administration of President George W. Bush and the creation of western Hawaiian islands protected areas in the early 2000s. Increasing restrictions during the Obama years and the Biden administration led toe pushback from fishing advocates, who argued that U.S. fisheries are among the best managed in the world and can coexist within marine conservation areas.

“Previous prohibitions on commercial fishing in the Pacific Ocean forced American commercial fishermen further offshore into international waters to compete against poorly regulated foreign fishing fleets,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said after the executive order. “Restoring access to these valuable fishing grounds within the U.S. exclusive economic zone will give diligent and honest American fishermen closer access to tuna and other pelagic species." 

The order expands permitted fishing grounds for U.S. fishermen in The expanded fishing grounds for American fishermen in: 

• The Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument
• The Mau Zone and Ho‘omalu Zone and areas seaward of 50 nautical miles within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
• Waters between 12 and 50 nautical miles surrounding Rose Atoll within the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument 

In its March recommendation the Western Pacific council called for commercial fishing to  be allowed between 50 and 200 nautical miles around Jarvis and Wake Islands and Johnston Atoll within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, while nearshore waters would remain closed.

Additional openings called for would extend12 to 50 nautical miles at Rose Atoll, 0 to 50 nautical miles in the Marianas Trench Islands Unit, and limited areas in Papahānaumokuākea for bottomfish and pelagic fisheries.

“This is not about removing monument protections – it’s about restoring sustainable fishing in limited areas under fishery regulations the Council has developed over decades,” Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds said at the time. “Those regulations were built to balance access and conservation, and that remains the Council’s guiding principle under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”