May 23, 2025 — Environmentalists are seeking to block the implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order opening most of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, arguing the order violates the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The law allows presidents to designate federal land or waters as national monuments, but “does not grant them the authority to strip vital protections from established monuments,” Earthjustice said in a news release accompanying its complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Trump issued the executive order April 17. It argued that fishing prohibitions have kept commercial fleets from too much of the United States’ waters in the Pacific Islands. “This has driven American fishermen to fish further offshore in international waters to compete against poorly regulated and highly subsidized foreign fleets,” the order stated.