President Donald Trump is drawing criticism for opening Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, just his latest move to reverse actions taken by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Established by Obama in 2016, the monument is a biologically rich seascape of more than 2 million acres roughly 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.
Trump during his first term in June 2020 flew to Maine to criticize Obama's designation of the monument under The Antiquities Act and to remove its ban on commercial fishing in the monument, telling a small gathering of lobstermen, crabbers and commercial fishing interests that, "[Y]ou've been treated very badly. They've regulated you out of business."
When he became president, Biden reversed Trump's order that opened the 5,000-square-mile monument, the country's first marine national monument, to commercial fishing.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries section, the monument "includes two distinct areas, one that covers three canyons and one that covers four seamounts. These undersea canyons and seamounts contain fragile and largely pristine deep marine ecosystems and rich biodiversity, including important deep sea corals, endangered whales and sea turtles, other marine mammals and numerous fish species."
In his proclamation Friday, Trump said that, "appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk."
"All of the fish species described in Proclamation 9496 are subject to federal protections under existing laws and executive department and agency management designations," the proclamation continued.
Trump said that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act passed in 2007 by Congress "regulates commercial fishing to ensure long-term biological and economic sustainability for our nation’s marine fisheries, taking into account the protection of associated marine ecosystems."
Criticizing the president's action was the Center for Biological Diversity, which said, "[T]hese magnificent canyons and seamounts are protected because vulnerable animals like the endangered sperm whale depend on them for survival. It’s illegal and unconscionable for Trump to try to strip away safeguards just to throw commercial fishing a few more bucks.”
Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, added that, “[S]o few places in the ocean are protected from harm, and marine life is suffering badly because of it. Nobody wants to see more whales and sea turtles entangled in fishing gear and more coral reefs collapsing. We’ll keep fighting hard to protect our marine national monuments and the precious life they support.”
A study conducted in 2022 found that Obama's designation of the monument had no real evident impact on commercial fisheries, according to an examination of catches before, during, and after establishment of the monument.
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