June 6, 2020 — President Donald Trump said he would allow commercial fishing in protected waters off New England, doing away with Obama-era safeguards meant to conserve deep-sea corals and endangered whales.
The action comes after years of lobbying and legal challenges by commercial fishermen eager to plumb the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument established by former President Barack Obama in September 2016.
Trump announced the news at a meeting Friday in Bangor, Maine, with some of those same fishing industry leaders, former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
Trump said Obama did “a tremendous disservice” to Maine by making the monument off-limits to commercial fishing.
“They’ve regulated you out of business,” Trump told fishermen at the event.
Bernhardt said the boundaries of the monument won’t change under the proclamation, which Trump signed Friday.