Trump Reopens Commercial Fishing Inside Three Pacific Marine National Monuments

On June 11, 2026, President Trump signed a proclamation, 'Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,' removing monument-based prohibitions on commercial fishing in designated zones of three Pacific marine national monuments: Papahanaumokuakea, the Mariana Trench and Rose Atoll. The action covers the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench monument, designated zones within Papahanaumokuakea, and waters between 12 and 50 nautical miles around Rose Atoll — part of what the proclamation describes as hundreds of thousands of square miles of Pacific waters. It states that existing law, including the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Endangered Species Act, provides adequate protection, and that restoring access 'will promote economic opportunity while ensuring continued stewardship of our Nation's marine resources.'

Marine national monuments are designated under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Whether a president may narrow protections established by a predecessor's proclamation is a contested question that has generated litigation over earlier monument reductions.

The proclamation was published in the Federal Register on June 17, 2026 and took effect on signing.