The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council wants to undo fishing protections in the Pacific Ocean, rolling back regulations that opponents say will hurt ocean ecosystems.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April to review regulations in U.S. marine monuments in an effort to promote domestic fishing.
As part of that review, WESPAC was asked to make recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on what to do within Pacific monuments.
On Tuesday the council voted to endorse a July letter it drafted recommending the allowance of commercial fishing in three Pacific monuments — the Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll and Pāpahānaumokuākea marine national monuments.
The council also voted separately to repeal fishing prohibitions in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, formerly known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
WESPAC contends that fishing efforts have been sustainable, and that blocking large swaths of ocean hurts Pacific communities. They say it also encourages foreign-based fisheries that fishing industry advocates allege follow fewer regulations and are subsidized by their governments.
“Our fishing industry is going downhill. We get more and more dependent on China to provide us with sustenance, and we end up saving all this fish and basically give it to China so they can sell it back to us,” said William Sword, WESPAC’s chair who is based in American Samoa.
WESPAC is made up of members representing Guam, Hawaiʻi, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa who have said that their communities rely on ocean resources for their economies as well as cultural and traditional practices — something they say monuments and closed fishing areas hurt.
“It's very sad that we have people getting arrested fishing in prohibited areas, but they're trying to feed their family. For us, in our culture, it's a sin not to feed your family. And that fish is out there and we can't catch it,” said WESPAC Councilmember Frank Perez from Guam. “Our economy — we're in bad shape. We haven't recovered from COVID. We're struggling. People are leaving. And it's a shame that we can see the fish running around out there, but we can't catch it.”
WESPAC has long been against fishing regulations, and has fought the creation and expansion of the monuments that it and the Trump administration are now targeting.
Proponents of the monuments and increased protections have fought back for just as long, and at Tuesday’s meeting they reminded the council of the pressures that commercial fishing puts on the ocean.
“I can state without a doubt that Pāpahānaumokuākea and the Pacific Island Heritage Marine National Monuments are among the last remaining wild, intact ecosystems on the planet. They're global treasures, and they remind us of what the oceans of the past once looked like,” said Alan Friedlander, an affiliate researcher at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology.
He asserted that the protections haven’t cost the Hawaiʻi longline fishing industry, but have actually benefited it.
One study in 2022 showed that marine protected areas allow fish populations to grow and provide a “spillover” effect that improves fishing just outside the protected areas’ boundaries, although WESPAC has argued against the findings.
At Pāpahānaumokuākea, which surrounds the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, protections from overharvesting date back more than 100 years. Before it was made a monument in 2006, up to half of the locally caught bottomfish species were caught there.
“Protecting Pāpahānaumokuākea was significantly inspired by WESPAC’s mismanagement. Now that the area is healthy, WESPAC wants to mismanage it again. I am disgusted by the latest attempts to allow industrial fishing in Pāpahānaumokuākea, Pacific Islands Heritage and other marine protected areas,” said William Aila Jr., the former chair of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, in a statement.
The council’s recommendation is to let commercial tuna longline fishing resume in Pāpahānaumokuākea’s EEZ, or 50 to 200 nautical miles from shore. Its recommendations would also include reporting and monitoring requirements, and keep fishing restrictions intact from shore to 50 nautical miles out.
In April Trump also signed a proclamation to reopen the PIHMNM. However, that order was struck down last month by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court.
PIHMNM is nearly 500,000 square miles in size, and Pāpahānaumokuākea is about 100,000 square miles larger. The four protected monuments in the Pacific Ocean cover a total of about 1.2 million square miles of ocean.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai’i, and it’s the people of Hawai’i who keep us independent and strong. Help keep us strong to serve you in the future. Donate today.
