Ocean protection. Earthjustice recently won a round in federal court. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Micah Smith ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order to allow commercial fishing in a protected area was invalid. It remains to be seen if the administration will appeal the decision.
Earthjustice represents three nonprofits in the lawsuit: Kāpaʻa, the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Conversation spoke to Sol Kahoʻohalahala on Tuesday about the latest ruling. Boats catching fish for sale will need to immediately cease fishing in waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles around Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island and Wake Island, according to Earthjustice.
He is with the group Kāpaʻa and is chair of the Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition. The former state representative and director of the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission recently returned from a United Nations Oceans Conference and is headed to another UN gathering at the end of this week.
Meanwhile, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council said in a statement that it was disappointed by the decision and will discuss its options at a meeting next month.
Interview highlights
On the ruling against the executive order
SOL KAHOʻOHALAHALA: I'm very pleased that we were able to at least continue, one, just to have standing in the court as a client, and that this judge was very expedient in making sure that he was asking the administration the right questions about their decisions. And then coming out with a decision that says that the letter that was submitted by the National Marine Fisheries, which cancels all previous protections, is not valid. And by the Trump administration opening up these areas for commercial fishing, of which we've worked really hard for decades to protect, is now deemed to be invalid. So the administration's letter is deemed by the courts to be invalid; therefore, it does not allow commercial fisheries to go into the area of the Pacific Island Heritage National Marine Monument to begin commercial fishing, as has been the executive order stated by the president. So, for us, that is a step in the right direction, because it just now puts at bay these activities, which are going to be so detrimental to the work that we have been doing for decades, in terms of trying to set aside protected areas and their resources for generations to come. And so this executive order, to me, was quite irresponsible on the part of the administration, to just come with this idea that the U.S. wants to become the greatest and the biggest and the largest marine commercial fisheries area in the world, and in the same moment, not give any consideration to what it is that we have had a vision for, and that's the protection of these resources that would be available for the generations of children yet unborn. So for us, putting a halt at this juncture is a major win, because it keeps the ocean in the pristine and protected condition of which we had intended.
On the mission of the Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition
KAHOʻOHALAHALA: I belong to the Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition, and so we are a membership of different expertise. We have marine scientists, we have cultural communities, we have people who are very astute in law. And collectively, what we've been trying to do was be very responsible in responding to all of the kinds of challenges that come, especially in the pushback to create marine protected areas. So we have been the subject of a lot of criticism by the commercial fisheries for having to create these protected areas, and told that we would be killing the fishing community and creating havoc, and people not being able to have jobs, and all. So the coalition in our work is trying to make sure that we were very responsible. So we made sure that we covered all of those bases, so that we were clear about our position to create protection, and that it was never our intent to create a position of which we are going to create havoc for the fisheries or the people involved in fisheries. And so we have been successful in demonstrating our intent.
On commercial fishing and American Samoa's fishing industry
KAHOʻOHALAHALA: We have been doing our own due diligence in terms of the Samoan tuna cannery industry, and what we understand is that the American Samoa tuna cannery industry is not going to be affected by our protection. What is a critical concern for the tuna industry in American Samoa is that the processing of the fish that they normally would bring into American Samoa is being determined by the fisheries themselves. And many of them are deciding that they can process their tuna in other locations than American Samoa at a more economical cost. So, trying to bring their catch all the way to American Samoa for processing becomes a problem, not because of our protection, but because of the economics of that.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 13, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
