Saving Seafood

Trump ends Obama-era restrictions on commercial fishing in protected area off New England

February 9, 2026 — President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Friday reopening a huge swath of protected sea in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing.

Trump said the move would reestablish fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast, a nearly 5,000-square-mile preserve east of Cape Cod that was created by former President Barack Obama. Trump rolled back protections in the area in 2020 and President Joe Biden later restored them.

Commercial fishing groups have long sought the reopening of the protected area and voiced support on Friday.

“We deserve to be rewarded, not penalized,” said John Williams, president and owner of the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Red Crab Company. “We’re demonstrating that we can fish sustainably and continue to harvest on a sustainable level in perpetuity.”

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump Opens Marine National Monument in Atlantic to Commercial Fishing

February 9, 2026 — President Trump moved on Friday to allow commercial fishing in the only marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, an area the size of Connecticut that is home to dolphins, endangered whales, sea turtles and ancient deep-sea corals.

Mr. Trump signed a proclamation opening up the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which lies 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. President Barack Obama created the monument in 2016, and Mr. Trump tried to lift the ban on commercial fishing there during his first term, but President Joseph R. Biden Jr. reinstated the restrictions.

“I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk,” Mr. Trump wrote in the proclamation.

This was the second time that Mr. Trump opened a marine national monument to commercial fishing. In April 2025, he ended protections for the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, which lies about 750 miles west of Hawaii and was established by President George W. Bush in 2009.

Fishing industry groups praised the move and rejected the notion that their activities in the area would cause environmental damage.

“America’s commercial fishermen are among the world’s most responsible ocean stewards,” Bob Vanasse, the executive director of the industry group Saving Seafood, said in a statement. “Their work is tightly regulated, environmentally conscious and vital to the economies and food security of coastal communities.”

Read the full article at The New York Times

Trump Restores Commercial Fishing Access to Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

“By reopening the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts to commercial fishing, fairness, transparency, and science-based governance has been restored to the affected fisheries.” — Bob Vanasse, Executive Director of Saving Seafood

February 6, 2026 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Statement from Bob Vanasse, Executive Director of Saving Seafood, on President Trump’s Action to Restore Commercial Fishing Access to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument:

This afternoon, President Trump revoked President Biden’s Proclamation 10287 and removed the restrictions on commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

This decision reflects a clear understanding of a simple truth: commercial fishing in the United States is already governed by the most comprehensive, science-based, and publicly accountable regulatory system in the world. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, fishing activities in federal waters must meet strict sustainability standards, undergo rigorous scientific review, and follow a transparent process that includes stakeholder input and council oversight. Restoring access to the monument area under this framework reaffirms—not undermines—our commitment to conservation.

In stark contrast, President Obama’s 2016 designation of the monument excluded commercial fishermen from a region they had sustainably fished for generations. It was imposed unilaterally through executive order—without public hearings, without a cost-benefit analysis, and without input from those whose livelihoods were affected. It was a top-down decision that ignored the proven success of the fishery management system already in place. And in a striking display of hypocrisy, while working fishermen were forced out, the uber-wealthy with yachts large enough for spearfishing adventures 130 miles offshore were not banned.

President Trump restored the rights of fishermen once before in 2020. This followed both Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt agreeing to meet with fishing groups in Boston, in meetings I had the honor to chair.

Unfortunately, President Biden repeated the undemocratic actions of President Obama in 2021, reimposing the ban on commercial fishing with no meaningful engagement. Our industry reached out to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in good faith—we wrote letters, made phone calls, and requested meetings. We received no response.

All eight regional fishery management councils formally opposed the Biden administration’s reimposition of the ban. President Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland actively disregarded the voices of the very councils and communities entrusted with managing our marine resources. Their closed-door approach and lack of transparency sent a message: facts and stakeholders were not welcome in their decision-making process. This is not how democratic governance or environmental policy should be conducted. But it is not surprising, as there is a history of monument creation via secretive alliance between certain environmentalists and sympathetic Administration staff, as described in this 2015 E&E News story.

We fully expect the usual environmental advocacy groups to respond as they did in 2020, with misleading rhetoric and predictions of catastrophic overfishing. So let’s be absolutely clear: any fishing that resumes in the monument will remain subject to the full force of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a law these same groups routinely hail as a global benchmark for sustainable fishery management.

Their objection is not about protecting the ocean—it is about controlling American commercial fishermen and pushing a broader, extremist agenda that seeks to deny citizens the ability to responsibly use our resources, regardless of science or sustainability.

The truth is that America’s commercial fishermen are among the world’s most responsible ocean stewards. Their work is tightly regulated, environmentally conscious, and vital to the economies and food security of coastal communities. When managed through the regional fishery management councils and NOAA Fisheries, commercial fishing supports biodiversity and conservation while feeding the nation.

LOUISIANA: Louisiana commercial fishers welcome menhaden bycatch study

July 9, 2025 –A new study on bycatch in Louisiana’s commercial menhaden fishery is largely being welcomed by the state’s fishing industry, who claim it shows the fishery “is sustainable, selective, and not a threat to red drum populations.”

“This study should put to rest the misinformation that’s too often circulated about this fishery,” Menhaden Fisheries Coalition spokesperson Bob Vanasse said in a statement. “This independent science reaffirms what we’ve always said: The Gulf menhaden fishery is guided by data, not politics or guesswork.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump opens swath of pristine Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing

April 18, 2025 — President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a proclamation saying he is easing federal restrictions on commercial fishing in a vast protected area of the central Pacific known as the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

Trump said he will allow U.S.-flagged vessels to fish within 50 to 200 nautical miles of the landward boundaries of the monument, which covers some 490,000 square miles of open ocean, coral reef and island habitats. Located south and west of Hawaii, the area is home to seven national wildlife refuges. It includes some of the Earth’s last pristine maritime environments, serving as a sanctuary for species such as endangered sea turtles, sharks and migratory birds, according to marine wildlife experts.

In a separate executive order Thursday, Trump also said he would reduce regulations on commercial fishing more broadly and asked his secretary of commerce to “identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries” and take action to “reduce the regulatory burden on them.”

Trump’s directives, which are likely to attract legal challenges, seek to weaken protections initially set up by his predecessors. President George W. Bush in 2009 established the monument and restricted oil exploration and commercial fishing within it. In 2014, his successor Barack Obama, expanded the protected area to more than 490,000 square miles.

Trump, in the proclamation, said existing environmental laws provide sufficient protection for marine wildlife in the area and that many of the fish species in the monument are migratory.

“I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put objects of scientific and historic interest [within the monument] at risk,” he said.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of the commercial fishing trade group Saving Seafood, said in an email that the shift in policy “does not create a commercial fishing free-for-all in the monuments.”

“Commercial fishing in the monuments will be allowed only under fishery management plans that manage the fisheries sustainably under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act,” Vanasse said, referring to the law that governs fishing in federal waters.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Biden’s lavish lobster dinner doesn’t change his hostility to seafood industry, fish groups say

December 3, 2022 — The following is an excerpt from an article by Fox News:

A pair of fish and seafood associations weighed in on President Biden’s upcoming lavish lobster dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Biden faced backlash on Twitter on Wednesday night from Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden over his upcoming Thursday seafood dinner with Macron featuring Maine lobster.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, commended Golden for calling out Biden on the issue and said that his organization has had trouble meeting with the current administration.

Vanasse said that it’s not just lobster, but other seafood industries like tuna and swordfish are having issues meeting with the White House.

“I applaud the congressman for calling out the administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to our domestic fisheries and their policies,” Vanasse said.

“This is not the first time that something like this has happened, but it is good to see, and particularly a Democrat pointing it out because this administration has frankly not been friendly or helpful to our domestic fishing industry,” he continued.

Vanasse said “the most egregious example of that was last summer with regard to the Atlantic Marine Monument, which President Obama created with very little scientific backing using the Antiquities Act.” He noted that the monument move prevents tuna, lobster and swordfish fishing and that America’s “sustainable red crab industry is being kicked out of that area,” as well.

“We spent three years working with the Trump administration to reverse President Obama’s ban on commercial fishing in that area,” Vanasse said. “And they did a very diligent job of looking at science before they agreed to remove the ban and allow our fishermen in that area.”

Vanasse said that the Biden administration has not followed through on its policymaking with science over politics, and that when they “were fighting for our offshore lobster industry, our red crab industry, our fishermen and our tuna fishermen” last summer, they “got one hour to defend the industry with staff at the Department of the Interior before there was even a Senate-confirmed secretary in place.”

He said that on Columbus Day last year, the Biden administration cut off their “fishermen’s right to fish for lobster, crab, swordfish and tuna” in the [Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument], adding that “this administration has been very much in bed with the more extreme environmentalists.”

“And I mean, with regard to the monument, it’s not surprising because the champion of the monument in the Obama administration was Monica Medina, and she’s married to Ron Klain, who’s the White House chief of staff,” said Vanasse. “So when we were fighting for those fisheries, we couldn’t get any Democrats to stand up to the White House. Basically, they just told us that they had tried. They called [the Department of the Interior], they called the White House. They were essentially told that there was no way, because if Trump did it, it had to be bad, and so they were going to reverse what Trump did. No science, no study. One hour of communication with the entire… with all of the people who represent those commercial fisheries that were affected.”

Vanasse said that the White House has likely served tuna and swordfish in addition to lobster, and he thinks Golden’s speaking out “will actually get the president’s attention and perhaps maybe we can actually get the kind of attention from the Biden administration that we were able to get from the Trump administration and not have our fishermen be treated as second-class citizens.”

Vanasse said he does not believe Biden “has personally done much of anything for the fishing industry” and has “delegated it to appointees in his administration.”

Regarding the dinner, Vanasse praised the White House for “thumbing their nose” at “the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program and at Whole Foods for blindly following Seafood Watch” and that he was “delighted to see them do that and for them to take a New England domestic fishery and serve it.”

He continued, “That’s what the White House should do. They should be doing this more. But it’s a bit hypocritical at the same time to be moving forward with regulations that are harming our domestic fisheries and also serving the product. You know, they’re trying to have their lobster and eat it, too, so to speak.”

Read the full story at Fox News

Biden pitches Atlantic coast ‘Grand Canyon’ as marine sanctuary

June 8, 2022 — The White House today endorsed designating the Atlantic coast’s largest undersea canyon as one of the nation’s next underwater parks, but stopped short of enacting immediate protections that could guard the “ecological hotspot” from commercial fishing, energy development or other threats.

The Biden administration announced it will begin the process for safeguarding the Hudson Canyon — which sits 100 miles off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and rivals the Grand Canyon in scale — in a series of actions to mark today’s World Oceans Day.

In addition to kicking off the designation of a new national marine sanctuary, the White House vowed to develop a “whole-of-government Ocean Climate Action Plan” on ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

NOAA will oversee the designation process for the Hudson Canyon, which would become part of an existing group of 15 underwater parks that includes both freshwater and ocean sites.

But that process, which includes public comment, the drafting of environmental impact statements and management plans, and potential rulemaking, is not a swift one, with a final decision taking two to three years.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of industry group Saving Seafood, praised the decision to utilize the sanctuaries act rather than take executive action.

“I appreciate that they are using the Marine Sanctuaries Act to do this, which allows input from affected ocean users and will allow for actual science to be considered, which is exactly why we objected to and continue to object to the marine monument designation,” Vanasse said, referring to the ongoing legal battle over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts site (E&E News PM, Oct. 8, 2021).

Last fall, Biden restored commercial fishing prohibitions to the Atlantic Ocean monument that former President Donald Trump had struck down in 2020.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Local Fishing Industry Upset Over Biden Restoring Marine National Monument

October 12, 2021 — President Biden re-established an area off of the coast of Cape Cod as a marine national monument Friday, a move that has the local fishing industry angry.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was originally created during the Obama administration to preserve the sea life in that region. During the Trump administration, restrictions in the area were scaled back, which allowed for commercial fishing.

Under the new executive action from President Biden, commercial fishing in the area is banned but recreational fishing is allowed. The monument is more than 100 miles southeast off the shore of Cape Cod.

Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood told WBZ’s Karyn Regal (@karynregal) the trip to the area is one only a chartered fishing boat or mega yacht could make.

“The privileged few are going to allowed to go out and spearfish on the same species that working families in the swordfish and tuna industry will not be able to do,” Vanasse said.

Read the full story at WBZ News

 

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

Concern about endangered whales cited in suit over wind farm

August 25, 2021 — The construction of dozens of wind turbines off the coast of Nantucket threatens the survival of a dwindling number of endangered Northern Atlantic right whales that inhabit the waters, a group of residents on the affluent resort island in Massachusetts argue in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

ACK Residents Against Turbines said Vineyard Wind’s proposed project of some 60 turbines 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the island is located in a crucial area for foraging and nursing for the species, which researchers estimate number less than 400.

Mary Chalke, a Nantucket resident and member of the opposition group, said the lawsuit isn’t just about Vineyard Wind, but other turbine projects also in the pipeline up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Bob Vanasse, who heads the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said Vineyard Wind and other projects proposed in the region could impact a range of significant fisheries, including squid, clams and scallops.

“There are a number of groups in various fisheries who have raised concerns about the insufficiency of the planning and review effort,” he said Wednesday. “This group is far from alone in that.”

Vineyard Wind also comes years after the infamous Cape Wind project, which failed after bitter litigation from another group that included Nantucket property owners.

Read the full story at the Associated Press