Trump Lifts Biden-Era Restrictions On Commercial Fishing In Atlantic Marine Monument

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump revoked a prohibition on commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument on Friday, restoring rules that allow regulated harvesting in the protected Atlantic waters while citing existing federal laws as adequate safeguards for the area’s ecosystems.

The move reverses a 2021 decision by President Joe Biden that reinstated fishing restrictions in the roughly 4,913-square-mile monument, located where the continental shelf meets the Atlantic Ocean off New England. The monument was created by President Barack Obama’s Proclamation 9496 in 2016.

In Trump’s proclamation, he said that well-regulated commercial fishing is in the public interest.

The president’s proclamation argues that laws such as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act ensure sustainable fishing practices and protect marine species, making a total ban unnecessary.

“Following further consideration of the nature of the objects identified in Proclamation 9496 and the protection of those objects already provided by Federal law, I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk,” the new proclamation states.

Trump’s action comes after his 2020 modification of the monument, which removed fishing restrictions imposed by Obama’s 2016 proclamation under the Antiquities Act. Obama designated the area as a monument to preserve deep-sea canyons, seamounts, and associated marine life, including highly migratory fish species and rare corals.

In his proclamation, Trump noted that many fish in the monument are not unique to the area and are managed by regional fishery councils using scientific data. Other statutes, such as the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, and Clean Water Act, provide additional protections for wildlife, habitats, and water quality.

Trump’s latest action revokes Biden’s Proclamation 10287 in 2021, which restored protections for the monument, and reinstates the terms of Proclamation 10049, issued in 2020, which removed restrictions.

The monument’s boundaries remain the same, but management will align with Trump’s 2020 proclamation, allowing commercial activities under existing regulations.

Trump’s proclamation notes the Antiquities Act requires monuments’ boundaries to be the “smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

Environmental groups have long supported the monument’s protections, arguing they shield vulnerable species from industrial impacts. A 2019 federal appeals court ruling upheld Obama’s designation against challenges from fishing interests, affirming the ban on commercial fishing and resource extraction to protect whales, turtles, fish, and deep-sea corals.