The Trump administration issued an order Thursday to reopen most of the waters in Hawaiʻi’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to U.S. commercial fishing, a major win for local seafood industry leaders who’ve fought for years to roll back those environmental protections.

The executive order also lifts most commercial fishing restrictions at two other Pacific U.S. marine monuments: Rose Atoll and the Marianas Trench. 

The move aims to leave all such U.S. protected areas in the Pacific open to U.S. fleets, including Hawaiʻi’s longline vessels, following Trump’s similar order last year to re-open the Pacific Islands Heritage monument to fishing as well.

Environmental groups including the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi are already challenging the Pacific Islands Heritage order in court, arguing that Trump overstepped his authority. Thursday’s order is almost certain to be challenged as well.

“This is a reckless attack on the world’s greatest ocean sanctuaries,” Maxx Phillips, a senior attorney and the Hawaiʻi and Pacific Islands director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement shortly after Trump’s order was announced. 

“Papahānaumokuākea is a sacred place and a refuge for endangered wildlife found nowhere else on Earth,” Phillips said. “We’ll fight hard against Trump’s short-sighted attempt to plunder these incredibly biodiverse waters.”

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Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Longline Association, stressed Thursday that commercial fishing vessels wouldn’t get immediate access to the monument waters opened by Trump’s order. That access still has to go through federal scrutiny and a rule-making process before it gets approved, per the order.

“Any future management decisions,” Kingma said in an emailed statement, “should be guided by sound science, respect for cultural and environmental values, and a balanced approach that supports conservation, food security, and the long-term viability of Hawai‘i’s longline fleet and associated local seafood companies.”

Thursday’s proclamation is the latest in a broader push under Trump to boost fishing access in monuments that aim to safeguard marine biodiversity for future generations.

Earlier this year, Trump signed an order to lift commercial fishing restrictions at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Last week, a Republican-led House committee considered legislation to prohibit commercial fishing bans in the monuments altogether.

Designating monuments to close vast swathes of ocean to commercial fishing, proponents of that bill argue, is an overreach that take the management of fisheries out of local hands. However, environmental legal advocates counter that Trump lacks the authority to reverse the conservation-minded steps that his predecessors took and the public vetted.

Earthjustice, a non-profit law firm that often represents environmental groups, vowed to take legal action in a release Thursday.

“Commercial fishing in our protected marine monuments would not only be disastrous for the environment, but also does nothing for the fishing industry,” said David Henkin, deputy managing attorney with Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office, in the release. “Without fishing in the monuments, U.S.-based fisheries hit their catch limits for tuna every year. Science-backed management for the benefit of current and future generations requires protected marine areas. Safe havens allow marine life to maintain healthy populations and prevent corporate greed from stripping the ocean of life. We’ll see the administration in Court.”

Specifically, the order calls for commercial access to Papahānaumokuākea between 50 and 200 miles from shore. That represents the area that was expanded under President Barack Obama in 2016. The original monument area, designated under President George W. Bush in 2009, would remain off-limits to those boats.

Neil Jacobs, administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a release that the administration’s action will lead to more U.S.-caught fish on American tables.

“Restoring commercial fishing access to these vital areas reflects the continued commitment of this Administration to American fisheries, which are built on the foundation of rigorous science, robust monitoring, strong enforcement, and the daily commitment of our dedicated fishermen,” Jacobs said in the release.

It remains unclear how Papahānaumokuākea’s unique dual designation as both a monument and a marine national sanctuary might affect Trump’s latest order. Conservation groups pushed to add the sanctuary status toward the end of President Joe Biden’s administration in case Trump returned to power and sought to revoke monument protections. Unlike the monuments, which are unilaterally designated by the president under the Antiquities Act, it takes an act of Congress to create or undo a sanctuary.

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Hawai‘i longline fleet leaders, joined by Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council officials, have lobbied for decades against the creation and expansion of commercial fishing bans that aim to protect pelagic tuna stocks and other marine resources. 

They’ve pressed for access to more fishing grounds to compete with the larger fishing operations out of China and other Asian countries. The Honolulu-based fleet is the basis of a $125 million industry that primarily targets bigeye tuna and swordfish, sold fresh at auction.

“We are pleased that … management of fishing in monument waters is returning to the fishery councils,” Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds said in a statement after the group’s latest regular meeting Thursday, held in Pago Pago. “The Council is committed to continue working together with our fishing communities in American Samoa, Hawai‘i and the Northern Mariana Islands to discuss and develop fishery management plans in these areas.”

The lifting of commercial fishing bans in monument waters is a blow to the effort to protect those pelagic fish stocks and the delicate marine ecosystems that support them, according to researchers, conservationists and cultural practitioners. Such protections are especially important, they add, as impacts from climate change worsen. Wespac’s scientific advisory body has said the tuna and swordfish are migratory and don’t benefit from the monument’s protections.

It also remains to be seen how the state of Hawaiʻi and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which co-manage the Papahānaumokuākea monument with the federal government, will respond to the Trump administration’s changes.

Kekuewa Kikiloi, co-chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group for the monument, described Papahānaumokuākea as a sacred place in a statement Thursday.

“President Trump’s most recent proclamation undermines two decades of public and stakeholder effort to protect this special region of Hawai’i,” he said. “We’re committed to holding the line and fighting this in court.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.