April 21, 2026 — When the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted in March to restore commercial fishing in parts of four Pacific marine national monuments, the coverage that followed left one key figure on Guam with something to clarify.
Chelsa Muña, director of the Guam Department of Agriculture and Guam’s representative on the council, wants island residents to understand something that has gotten lost in the broader noise around Pacific fisheries: Guam’s Coral Reef Fisheries Management Plan covers coral reef fish only. Not bottom fish. Not pelagics. Reef fish.
“It is critical that the plan and any new guidelines and regulations only apply to coral reef fish,” Muña told The Guam Daily Post. “We are not addressing bottom fish or pelagic fish.”
That distinction matters because federal fishery regulations, including the council’s monument decisions, apply to bottomfish and pelagics in waters three to 200 nautical miles from shore. Guam’s territorial waters extend just three miles out. The two systems operate in separate jurisdictions and cover entirely different fish populations.