Trump expands “America First” fishing in protected zones

America First – A new Trump proclamation would reopen commercial fishing in major parts of three national marine monuments in Hawaiʻi, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands—areas that include Papahānaumokuākea and the Mariana Trench. Supporters

When Kekuewa Kikiloi stepped aboard a research vessel in 2002 to visit the northwestern Hawaiian islands, he didn’t expect to return with a mission. He grew up on Oʻahu, but, like many Native Hawaiians, he had never had the chance to see the uninhabited islands and atolls scattered to the west.

What he witnessed stayed with him. “There’s no places left in Hawaiʻi. or very few places. where the environment is so wild and intact that you have your ancestors who are embodied in the environment communicating with you every second: birds hovering over you. monk seals swimming up to you. fish trying to bite you. ” Kikiloi told Grist. “It’s so raw, the experience up there.”.

That monthlong research expedition—conducted with scientists and Native Hawaiians—ignited decades of advocacy to protect Papahānaumokuākea. “It ended up being this amazing journey of rediscovery for a lot of us. When we came back to the main Hawaiian islands. we started telling the community about how thereʻs a whole other side of our house that we didnʻt know about. We have to know about this place,” Kikiloi said. The movement helped establish Papahānaumokuākea as both a marine sanctuary and a marine national monument.

Now Kikiloi fears the guardrails are slipping.

Earlier this month. President Donald Trump issued an executive proclamation allowing commercial fishing in parts of three national marine monuments in Hawaiʻi. American Samoa. and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. or CNMI. The proclamation covers the Mau and Ho‘omalu Zones of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. and the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. Collectively. the areas span roughly half a million square miles in the Pacific Ocean and include thousands of plant and animal species in some of the planet’s most ecologically sensitive habitats.

The move is the latest in a sequence of actions aimed at dismantling conservation restrictions for industrial fishing. Last April. Trump signed a proclamation to open over 400. 000 square miles of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. The administration also issued an executive order intended to boost domestic seafood production and has continued to increase several fishery quotas. Earlier this year, Trump signed another proclamation removing commercial fishing from prohibited activities in two national monuments in the Atlantic.

After this month’s proclamation. the White House posted on Facebook that it was an “AMERICA FIRST FISHING POLICY. ” describing it as a “MASSIVE WIN FOR AMERICA’S FISHERMEN!” During the signing in the Oval Office. Trump promised the change would generate “millions and millions of dollars in new business for our great. really great fishermen” and lower seafood costs.

For Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the only congressional representative from the CNMI, the central promise is jobs. She attended the signing and said in a press release that she hopes the federal government will work with local officials and communities to implement the directive and that it creates jobs. “For the CNMI, ocean policy is local policy,” she said. “If American fishing activity grows in these waters. our goal should be to connect that activity to local jobs. local businesses. port activity. seafood infrastructure. and long-term food security for the Commonwealth.”.

Commercial fishers and industry-linked groups have celebrated the rollback around places like Papahānaumokuākea. “We need to eat fish caught by our fishermen who follow U.S. laws,” Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, told Grist. Eric Kingma. executive director of the Hawaiʻi Longliners Association. told Honolulu Civil Beat that he welcomed a federal review “guided by sound science” on the scientific. economic. and cultural significance of the area. as well as management decisions supporting “the long-term viability of Hawai‘i’s longline fleet.” After Trump signed the first commercial fishing proclamation last April. Kingma argued that ocean conservation and commercial fisheries can be compatible. “What we like about opening these up is the opportunity to fish there when the fish are there. ” Kingma said at the time.

Supporters see opportunity. Kikiloi sees something more intimate slipping away.

In Hawaiʻi. the fight isn’t only economic—it’s about whether Indigenous people can remain connected to ancestors who. in Kikiloi’s description. are “embodied in the environment.” He isn’t surprised that researchers like Camilo Mora are also raising alarms. Scientists have found some of the oldest living corals on earth in Papahānaumokuākea. and Hawaiian oral histories describe the area as the place where life began.

“It’s the place where our souls return to after death,” Kikiloi said. “It’s hard to exist as Hawaiians nowadays if every aspect of your environment is degraded.”

But even as the administration points to jobs and growth, its approach has collided with legal questions that remain unresolved.

In April of last year. just days after the president’s April 2025 proclamation. the National Marine Fisheries Service. or NOAA Fisheries. announced in a letter to fishing permit holders that it reopened commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. That ban-lift lasted nearly four months. until last August. when a federal district judge ruled—after a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice—that the move violated the federal rulemaking process.

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin believes that case helped push the administration to shift tactics for revising industrial fishing regulations. After the president’s Atlantic Ocean proclamation earlier this year. NOAA Fisheries went through formal rulemaking to change the regulation that previously banned commercial fishing in those monuments.

Even so, Henkin says a more fundamental legal question is still hanging in the air. Under the Antiquities Act of 1906. the president has authority to designate certain federal water and lands containing scientific. historic. or cultural resources as protected monuments. While Congress has absolute authority over the use and management of federal lands and waters. no federal court has yet ruled whether the Antiquities Act allows a president to undo a national monument or their protections. Several cases are pending, and Earthjustice is again preparing to challenge the administration in court. “It’s anyone’s guess what these folks are going to do. other than play fast and loose with the law. ” Henkin said.

For critics, that legal uncertainty overlaps with a worry about who benefits.

Opening these areas to commercial fishing has the additional effect of edging out traditional Indigenous fishers. who practice smaller-scale. more sustainable fishing and are largely exempt from commercial fishing bans in protected waters. Indigenous fishers. for instance. still retained the right to subsistence fish under the protections Trump stripped back within the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. “If anyone gains to benefit from this. it’s not going to be the traditional Indigenous communities. ” said Steven Mana‘oakamai Johnson. Kanaka Maoli from the island of Saipan and assistant professor at Cornell University. “It’s going to be businesses, corporations, and those who have these larger vessels.”.

On the CNMI side of the policy, Kimberlyn King-Hinds framed the promise around local jobs and long-term food security for the Commonwealth. In American Samoa, the skepticism is sharper.

A year ago. Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata from American Samoa said of the Pacific marine monuments that “Neither Presidents Bush. Obama. or Biden ever asked American Samoa what they wanted before they took away our Indigenous fishing rights without any science.” Now Amata is concerned that fishing around Rose Atoll could infringe on Indigenous rights as well. Her office said in a press release that Amata remains convinced that Rose Atoll should be off limits. her longstanding position. especially as she respects the cultural rights of the people of Manu’a.

Camilo Mora. the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientist who studies biodiversity. fisheries. and the global food system. challenges the administration’s jobs narrative. He argues that any short-term economic benefits will be offset by long-term ecosystem losses. Most U.S. waters are already open to commercial fishing. and highly protected areas where all extractive activity is banned make up about three percent.

Papahānaumokuākea is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. and Mora points to what’s at stake inside it: the area is a refuge for rare and ecologically significant species. and the Hawaiian monk seal. humpback whales. and green sea turtles are among more than 7. 000 species found there. many of which are critically endangered. Opening up the Mau and Ho‘omalu Zones to commercial fishing. Mora warns. could trigger a trophic cascade—when a change in the top predator’s population or behavior ripples throughout the food chain—driving “all of these populations to collapse.”.

“We are destroying the capacity of the oceans to make the food we need,” Mora said.

For Kikiloi, the argument is about something that can’t be measured solely in quotas or market prices. The experience of Papahānaumokuākea, for him, is not abstract conservation—it’s a living relationship with the environment, one he says is being degraded when protections are rolled back.

The proclamation now places that future in question across roughly half a million square miles of Pacific ocean. in areas where supporters promise growth and critics are preparing to push back in court—and where Indigenous fishers fear the policy will tilt the balance away from communities and toward larger vessels.

Trump America First Fishing Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument commercial fishing NOAA Fisheries Antiquities Act Earthjustice CNMI Mariana Trench Rose Atoll Indigenous fishing rights Camilo Mora Kekuewa Kikiloi