Saving Seafood

Fishermen move to intervene in Northeast marine monument case

August 5, 2026 — Two New England fishermen have asked a federal court to allow them to intervene in an ongoing lawsuit over commercial fishing access within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, adding another chapter to the years-long legal dispute over the protected Atlantic waters.

According to a July 31 press release from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), fishermen Frank Green of New York and Bob Conrad of Vermont filed a motion to intervene in Conservation Law Foundation v. Trump. Represented by PLF, the fishermen are seeking to defend the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the commercial fishing ban within the monument and argue that the ban was unlawfully established under the Antiquities Act.

“Presidents have abused their power under the Antiquities Act for decades, drastically exceeding its narrow scope and disregarding Congress to restrict Americans’ right to productively use natural resources,” PLF attorney Frank Garrison said in the release. “The fishermen who work those waters shouldn’t have their livelihoods threatened by unilateral presidential decree.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US bill would authorize commercial fishing in marine national monuments

June 4, 2026 — A bill being considered in U.S. Congress would prohibit presidents from prohibiting commercial fishing in marine national monuments, codifying that fishing activities in those areas must be regulated under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

Successive presidents’ administrations have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally establish national marine monuments or to change the protections granted within them, and commercial fishing groups have long bemoaned the use of that power to ban fishing within their boundaries. Former U.S. President Barack Obama prohibited commercial fishing within the nearly 5,000-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument when he established it in 2016, and later presidents have alternated between reallowing commercial fishing or banning it again; most recently, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order reauthorizing commercial fishing in the marine national monument.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump proclamation aims to unleash commercial fishing in Atlantic

February 9, 2026 — President Donald Trump has reopened a long-running fight over ocean conservation and fishing rights, ordering commercial fleets back into federally protected waters off New England and setting up another legal showdown.

Trump on Friday revoked Biden-era restrictions and again opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — about 150 miles off Cape Cod — to commercial fishing. The move drew criticism from environmental advocates and prompted the Conservation Law Foundation to say it is prepared to sue once again.

The decision reignited a decade-old conflict between the fishing industry and conservation groups over the fate of nearly 5,000 square miles of deep-sea canyons and underwater mountains that scientists say shelter rare corals, endangered whales and fish.

In his proclamation, Trump said the ban on commercial fishing was unnecessary, writing that “appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk.” He argued that many fish in the area “are highly migratory and not unique to the monument,” and that “a host of other laws enacted after the Antiquities Act provide specific protection for other plant and animal resources both within and outside the monument.”

The move marks the fourth time in less than a decade that a president has flipped federal policy on the monument, underscoring how sharply divided elected officials, advocates and coastal communities remain.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was created in 2016 by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act, protecting 4,913 square miles of ocean where the Atlantic meets the continental shelf. Recreational fishing was allowed, but commercial fishing was banned. The area includes three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and four seamounts — extinct underwater volcanoes — that rise thousands of feet from the ocean floor.

Read the full article at the State House News Service

Lame-duck Biden flooded with monumental requests

December 17, 2024 — President Joe Biden is facing a wave of campaigns to create new national monuments in his final weeks in office, but people both inside and outside the administration expect the outgoing president to select just a handful of key sites that have already been thoroughly vetted.

During his sole term in office, Biden has repeatedly used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate new national monuments, ranging from preserving sweeping natural landscapes to sites important to Native Americans to those that memorialize Black history in this country.

Earlier this week, he declared his seventh new national monument, recognizing the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, and acknowledging the government’s role in attempting to eradicate tribal culture through a boarding school system run by the Interior Department.

Read the full article at E&E News

American Samoa legislators voice concern over proposal to expand Marine Sanctuary

December 4, 2024 — American Samoa’s Senate President and Speaker of the House wrote in late November on behalf of the Legislature to express to President Joseph R. Biden their concern and opposition to the proposed expansion of the National Marine Sanctuary within the Pacific Remote Islands.

“As you consider potential actions during the concluding months of your administration, we urge you to resist all proposals to create or expand any Marine National Monument within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Western Pacific,” they wrote.

They believe that as ocean ecosystems face increasingly rapid changes, the U.S. fisheries management system — particularly through the oversight of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council — provides a stronger and more enduring framework for sustainable, science-based conservation measures than does the Antiquities Act.

“The Council has effectively managed these natural resources for our region, balancing ecological priorities with the economic needs of the local communities that depend on fishing for survival.”

Read the full story at Samoa News

Biden named in North Atlantic commercial fishing ban lawsuit filed by fishermen

April 14, 2022 — Fishermen in Massachusetts and New Jersey are challenging a Biden administration proclamation in court.

The fishermen have filed a lawsuit, Fehily et al. v. Biden et al., in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey alleging the proclamation that bans commercial fishing in the North Atlantic Ocean, primarily the Georges Bank area, saying it harms their ability to earn a living.

“The creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument violated the core requirements of the Antiquities Act to limit protections to specific monuments,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Frank Garrison said in a news release. “Most fundamentally, the Act gives the president authority to create monuments on federally owned or controlled land. The ocean is not land. Presidential action that goes beyond laws passed by Congress undermines the democratic process and the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

Antiquities Act Wrong Tool For Marine Monuments, Say Dozens of Industry Sectors in Letter to Biden

December 21, 2021 — From fishermen to miners, including the American Petroleum Institute and the National Fisheries Institute, 91 individuals signed a letter to President Biden last week urging him to not use the Antiquities Act when designating marine monuments.

The group, representing more than two dozen businesses and communities across the country, cited Biden’s “calls for the administration to establish “fully and highly protected areas” in 30% of the U.S. ocean by 2030, including through marine monuments designated under the Antiquities Act.”

They said concern was heightened by recent decisions to restore a commercial fishing ban in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and “… join the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, which commits the United States to actions that could lead to further prohibitions,” according to the letter.

“In furtherance of your efforts to unleash the full potential of the nation’s economy and address the impact of rising prices on the American people, and in recognition of your acknowledgement of the essential role that the ocean plays in our economy and livelihoods, … [we]… urge your support for using science-based and transparent processes when considering actions to manage the ocean for current and future generations,” the December 15 letter stated.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Biden’s decision to restore marine monument off Cape Cod is praised and criticized in Maine

October 12, 2021 — President Biden’s decision to restore the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off Cape Cod got mixed reactions in Maine on Friday. 

But while the decision restores a prohibition on commercial fishing in the area, it is not expected to have much direct impact on the state’s industries because few, if any, Maine boats fish there.

Last year, President Trump opened the 5,000-square-mile area that had first been designated as a national monument by President Obama in 2016. Some Maine commercial fishing groups applauded the decision, even though the area wasn’t frequented by Maine-based fishermen and women. The monument had been seen as a symbolic affront to the industry.

Gov. Janet Mills criticized the Biden administration for taking such a major action without input from stakeholders, including the fishing industry.

“While I support environmental protection and conservation, this major action – which comes just mere weeks after advancing a right whale rule that that will seriously harm New England fishermen – is misguided and premature,” Mills said in a statement. “This decision was made without the appropriate engagement and consultation of stakeholders who deserve to have their voices heard. Fishermen are already reeling from heavy-handed Federal action and this further erodes faith that the Biden Administration will seek consensus from all stakeholders on important decisions impacting the marine environment.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Biden is set to restore monuments. What happens next?

October 12, 2021 — As tribal leaders and environmentalists celebrate President Biden’s scheduled restoration today of more than 2 million acres of public lands to a pair of Utah monuments, activists stress that the pomp and circumstance is a precursor to extensive work that remains to be done to shore up those sites.

Biden is scheduled this afternoon to sign new proclamations, which have yet to be published, restoring millions of acres to both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.

He will also reinstate commercial fishing restrictions to Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean (Greenwire, Oct. 7).

The action will reverse cuts President Trump made in 2017 at the behest of GOP lawmakers who had long criticized the monuments as a form of federal overreach by the Democratic presidents who established them.

It will also restore protections to the marine monument that Trump removed in 2020, opening the 5,000-square-mile site about 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., to commercial interests.

Saving Seafood Executive Director Bob Vanasse criticized the Biden administration’s decision for allowing recreational fishing to continue in the area, even as members of his industry advocacy group are locked out.

“While the Biden-Harris administration has claimed decisions will be based on science, and not on who has the stronger lobby, this decision shows otherwise,” Vanasse said.

“Prohibiting hardworking commercial fishermen from sustainably harvesting while allowing owners of luxury yachts to spear fish for the same species in the same location is hypocritical and calls into question this administration‘s commitment to working families over wealthy donors,” he added.

Read the full story at Greenwire

Biden expands Bears Ears and other national monuments, reversing Trump cuts

October 8, 2021 — President Biden on Friday restored full protections to three national monuments that had been slashed in size by former president Donald Trump, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah — known for their stunning desert landscapes and historical treasures of Native American art and settlements, as well as a rich fossil record.

Biden used an executive order to protect 1.36 million acres in Bears Ears —slightly larger than the original boundary that President Barack Obama established in 2016 — while also restoring the 1.78 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument. Biden also reimposed fishing restrictions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England that Trump had opened to commercial fishing.

Biden signed the proclamations in a ceremony outside the White House, in front of tribal leaders and others. He used his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Bob Vanasse, of Saving Seafood, a seafood industry advocacy group, called Biden’s designation an “unfortunate decision.”

“Anyone who likes fresh local swordfish, tuna, lobster and crabmeat should be very angry with the Harris-Biden administration today,” he said. “And I know some environmental advocates will claim that the statistics show that no harm has been done to the fisheries from this closure. They think that because they don’t understand fisheries and misunderstand the statistics.”

Read the full story at the Washington Post