December 16, 2025 –Local fishery managers, moving in step with the Trump administration, want to eventually reopen large protected swaths of the Pacific to potentially all sorts of U.S. commercial fishing — not just the deep-sea tuna and swordfish sought by longline boats but nearshore lobsters and corals as well.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, commonly known as Wespac, will consider on Tuesday options drafted by its staff to lift the commercial bans in several marine national monuments, including Hawaiʻi’s Papahānaumokuākea.
Some of the options that the influential group will consider endorsing would allow commercial fishing to resume in Northwestern Hawaiian waters as close as 3 miles from shore.
The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s order last April asking fishery officials to explore reopening the monuments to commercial fishing.
Wespac has for years opposed commercial fishing bans in the Pacific. A brewing legal battle leaves it unclear whether Wespac, backed by the Honolulu-based longline industry and other seafood interests, will ultimately prevail.
Kitty Simonds, Wespac’s longtime executive director, told Civil Beat on Monday that the group considers it a priority to resume bottomfishing and trolling in Papahānaumokuākea’s waters that extend 50 miles out from shore, and to restart longline fishing in the waters 50 to 200 miles out from shore.
“We haven’t changed what we’d like to see from the time of (establishing) the monument, right?” Simonds said. “We made our arguments.”