Saving Seafood

WPRFMC votes to reopen fishing in parts of marine monuments after Trump order

September 19, 2025 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) has decided to move forward with allowing commercial fishing within marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean.

In a press release, the council said it is reopening the four marine national monuments in its management area – the Pacific Islands Heritage, Rose Atoll, Mariana Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine national monuments. U.S. President Donald Trump directed much of those areas to reopen to fishing in a sweeping proclamation issued in April 2025 designed to benefit the U.S. seafood industry.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource 

Federal regulators vote in favor of President Trump’s push for commercial fishing in marine monuments

September 17, 2025 — On Tuesday, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted to advance President Donald Trump’s executive order to allow commercial fishing inside the Papahanaumokuakea and Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monuments.

The decision came after dozens of Native Hawaiians, fishers, and scientists voiced opposition, including former Department of Hawaiian Home Lands director William Aila Jr.

“Great disappointment. It just means that extractive, industrial fishing takes precedent over the sacredness of Papahanaumokuakea,” Aila said. “This area has been pristine for many, many years, and the fisheries have regained their vitality. So, we would prefer to keep those areas closed off to fishing because that is our insurance policy for future generations.”

The council also voted to set limits on fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, which encompasses 490,000 square miles southwest of Hawaii.

Read the full article at Hawaii News Now

WPRFMC asks Trump to allow commercial fishing in Papahānaumokuākea

June 30, 2025 — Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to allow commercial fishing in parts of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) has asked the president to do the same for the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary.

Comprising several islands and atolls, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument was first established in 2006, and commercial fishing was banned within the monument in 2010. The monument was later expanded by former U.S. President Barack Obama to 582,578 square miles in size, making it the nation’s largest marine protected area.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

WPRFMC clarifies impacts of Trump’s decision to reintroduce fishing in Pacific national monument

June 5, 2025 — In April, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing commercial fishing from 50 to 200 nautical miles off the shore within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

The national monument was founded as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2009 under President George W. Bush and then expanded in 2016 under President Barack Obama.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Understaffed Western Pacific Fishery Management Council braces for further cuts

May 6, 2025 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPFMC) is calling on the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to “address severe funding shortfalls that threaten the future of fisheries management.”

However, the council’s calls are coming at a time when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to slash NOAA’s budget, which funds the council, by 27 percent for the 2026 fiscal year.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Clarifying Impact of President Trump’s Action on Pacific Fishing

April 24, 2025 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Recent media responses to President Trump’s April 17 Proclamation to restore access for American fishermen to the waters between 50 to 200 nautical miles (nm) offshore within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIHMNM) have raised questions and some confusion about its impact.

The change focuses on three islands—Wake, Johnston and Jarvis—where the President’s Proclamation will allow commercial fishing in the 50-200-nm zone around each of those islands. PIHMNM also includes four other island areas – Howland & Baker Islands; and Palmyra Atoll & Kingman Reef.

The Proclamation does not directly affect existing fishing restrictions protecting the waters surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands or the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Commercial fishing remains prohibited within 0-50 nm of all seven islands and atolls within the PIHMNM. These nearshore areas include coral reef ecosystems and provide essential habitat for a variety of protected marine species. Green and hawksbill sea turtles, which primarily inhabit lagoons and reefs within these zones, remain protected. Similarly, seabirds, including the dense nesting colonies of red-footed boobies on Palmyra, continue to thrive in areas unaffected by the Proclamation.

The offshore (50-200 nm) waters reopened by the Proclamation are deep, open-ocean environments, ranging from 900 to more than 6,000 meters deep (0.5 – 3.7 miles).

Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds pointed out that “These areas are well beyond the reach of fishing gear or shallow reef-dependent species. U.S. fishing activities targeting migratory tunas occur near the surface (maximum 400 meters) using gear such as deep-set longlines, which do not contact the seafloor or sensitive habitats.”

Since the Monument’s establishment by President Bush on January 12, 2009, all waters within 0–50 nm of each island area have been closed to commercial fishing. This closure was later expanded under President Obama to include the current monument boundaries out to 200 nm. President Trump’s action does not change the Bush monument boundaries.

The Council’s fisheries management framework under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is among the most comprehensive and conservation-based in the world. It includes:

  • A ban on destructive fishing methods like bottom trawls and drift gillnets since the 1980s
  • Prohibitions on fishing in numerous protected areas established since the 1980s
  • Vessel monitoring and observer coverage for longline fleets since the 1990s
  • Bycatch mitigation regulations reducing sea turtle and seabird interactions by 70–90% in the 2000s

Scientific research supports adaptive, science-based fisheries management as a more effective way to sustain tuna stocks than static marine protected areas (MPAs).

  • Research published by Gilman et al. in 2020 and Hilborn et al. in 2024 found no evidence of a “spillover effect” from static MPAs in PIHMNM and Papahanaumokuakea MNM, respectively.
  • Studies on areas worldwide closed to fishing led by Hilborn et al., and Pons et al. in 2022 confirmed that static open-ocean closures do not effectively conserve highly mobile species such as tunas or reduce bycatch.
  • A 2023 study by Hampton et al. found no conservation benefit for tropical tunas targeted by commercial fisheries from an MPA in a heavily fished area in nearby Kiribati—so closing a lightly fished area like the Pacific Remote Island Areas is unlikely to provide added benefit.

At its core, the Proclamation ensures that American fishermen—not foreign fleets—can responsibly access U.S. waters, while upholding the rigorous conservation standards that have defined U.S. fisheries for decades.

Since 2006, Presidents have used the Antiquities Act to establish five marine national monuments. Four of these monuments are in the Western Pacific Region, encompassing more than half of the U.S. exclusive economic zone surrounding Hawai‘i and the U.S. Pacific Territories and remote islands. Prior to this Proclamation, all monuments prohibited U.S. commercial fishermen from operating in these waters.

For more information, visit the Marine Spatial Management page on the Council website.

Links

United States Exclusive Economic Zones of the US Western Pacific Region map

History of Protected Species Conservation in US Western Pacific Fisheries

Protected Species Conservation Monograph

Milestones of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council

 

President Trump Returns Fishing to US Fishermen in the Pacific Islands

April 21, 2025 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

“By doing this, we are giving you back your lives.” President Trump’s words echoed across the Pacific as he signed a Presidential Proclamation to restore access for American fishermen to the waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles offshore within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIHMNM). 

A third of American Samoa’s workforce and 99.5% of its exports are dependent upon access to these waters by U.S. tuna purse seine vessels. Tuna is the most valuable commodity in the Pacific Islands and this Proclamation will help increase U.S. relevance in the Pacific economy. Thirteen U.S. purse seine and approximately 150 U.S. longline vessels compete on the high seas with more than 450 foreign purse seine and more than 1,200 foreign longline vessels in the Western and Central Pacific. In 2023, the catch value was $113 million in the port of Honolulu and $97 million in Pago Pago, ranking sixth and seventh in the nation, respectively (Source: NOAA Fisheries One Stop Shop).

“The Council welcomes the President’s Proclamation that will allow two major U.S. fisheries in the Pacific Ocean back into U.S. waters,” said Taulapapa William Sword, Chair of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. He went on to say this decision is aligned with the Council’s long-held stance that sustainable U.S. fisheries can coexist with marine conservation goals. 

The Proclamation recognizes the effectiveness of U.S. fisheries management under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and reopens parts of the PIHMNM to commercial fishing. The President recognized that well-regulated, U.S.-flagged commercial fisheries are not only compatible with conservation goals but are also vital to national food security, economic resilience and maritime presence in the Pacific. 

The expansion of the Monument in 2014 denied U.S. fishermen access in the entire 200-nautical mile U.S. exclusive economic zone around Johnston and Wake Atolls and Jarvis Island. It did little to prevent overfishing of highly migratory species like tuna, which move freely across international waters. Meanwhile, foreign fleets—often poorly regulated and heavily subsidized—continued to fish near the monument boundaries where they compete with well-managed U.S. tuna fisheries. 

This action restores access to fishing grounds of the Hawai‘i longline fishery, one of the most sustainable and highly regulated fisheries in the world that supplies fresh bigeye and yellowfin tuna to Hawai‘i and the U.S. mainland. These stocks have been maintained above sustainable levels with little risk of overfishing.

This region is sustainably managed under the Council’s Pacific Pelagic and Pacific Remote Island Areas Fishery Ecosystem Plans and associated federal regulations. U.S. longline fisheries have quotas, are required to report their fishing activity and catch, use real-time satellite-based vessel monitoring systems, carry federal observers and use specific gear to minimize impacts to protected species. The Council is also developing new measures for crew training for protected species handling and release and modernizing the fishery’s monitoring program to include camera-based electronic monitoring. 

“The Council remains committed to sustainably managing ocean resources while ensuring that U.S. fishermen are treated equitably in federal policies,” said Kitty Simonds, Council executive director. “Waters from 0 to 50 nautical miles offshore and the corals, fish and sea turtles there continue to be protected by the Council, NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and are off limits to commercial fishing.” She added that “this is a positive step for our island fishing communities, local economies and the broader Pacific region!”

For more information, visit the Marine Spatial Management page on the Council website.

Maps:

United States Exclusive Economic Zones of the US Western Pacific Region

Fleet Sizes of Longline and Purse-Seine Vessels in the Western and Central Pacific (Oct. 31, 2024)

Fishing Effort in the Pacific Ocean (Dec. 1, 2021 – March 1, 2022)

New Day on the Horizon for Western Pacific Fisheries

December 18, 2024 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Council) ended its 201st meeting on a hopeful note, inspired by the upcoming change in the Federal administration. The Council found that the incoming administration provides a chance to make U.S. fisheries in the Pacific great again.

After finally achieving an increase in longline bigeye tuna quotas last year, in 2024, U.S. fisheries in the Pacific were once again ignored and suffered a loss in striped marlin quota at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). The decision by the WCPFC requires the U.S. to set a catch limit of 228.4 metric tons annually from 2025 to 2027, a decrease of 50% from the previous limit. 

Kitty Simonds, Executive Director of the Council, said that she was “disappointed at the uneven playing field,” noting that the U.S. is the only fleet or country taking a reduction. She suggested that the impact of the rule will decrease the value of marlin and increase waste in the fishery.

The Ensuring Access to Pacific Fisheries Act (Public Law 14-327), states that “The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State, in the course of negotiations, shall seek— (1) to minimize any disadvantage to United States fishermen in relation to other members of the Commission.” Archie Soliai, Council vice Chair, said that the US government can and must do better to advocate for the best interests of its territories. Our future, our livelihoods, and the economic stability of our communities depend on it.”

Nate Ilaoa, American Samoa businessman, reminded the Council that “American Samoa has a signed contract with the U.S. in the form of the Deeds of Cession” referencing the document from April 17, 1900 that the U.S. signed with the Matai (chiefs) agreeing to protect and look after the interest of American Samoa.

With a change in administration, the Council plans to take the opportunity to write to the incoming administration and outline the issues with existing federal and international conservation and management measures. Simonds said that decisions from the Federal government have continued to negatively impact the U.S. Pacific Island fishing communities.

To improve U.S. fisheries, at this meeting, the Council also deliberated on implementation approaches for establishing protected species handling training requirements for Hawaii and American Samoa longline fisheries. The main goals are to reduce post-release mortality by addressing protected species handling and release through specific training to crew members that can assist during hauling operations. The recommendation specified a 1-2 year certification period for crew, maintaining the annual workshop certification for vessel owners and operators, and allowing flexibility for crew certifications to be met through owner/operator workshops.

“Considering high turnover, specifically for American Samoa, it is an ongoing challenge,” remarked American Samoa Council Member Archie Soliai. He suggested that “it makes [more] sense to have training for everyone together.”

Also, the Council advanced plans to transition electronic monitoring (EM) from a research initiative to an operational management tool. Recognizing the challenges posed by declining human observer coverage (due to overbudget costs), the Council outlined a phased approach to EM implementation that includes authorizing EM systems to monitor protected species interactions over three years as an optional program and establishing regional standards and a robust data review process.

“While the U.S. fisheries have suffered setbacks in recent years,” said Will Sword, Council Chairman, “we hope that these measures will continue the Council’s track record of encouraging sustainable fishing and perpetuating Pacific Island traditions and culture,”

Additional Council Actions

Guam Bottomfish Rebuilding Plan: The Council recommended increasing the annual catch limit to 34,500 pounds, with a post-season accountability measure to rebuild stocks by 2031. This measure means if the average catch over the most recent three years exceeds the limit, the following year’s limit will be reduced by the overage to prevent overfishing.

American Samoa Bottomfish Management: The Council recommended removing the Tier 6 acceptable biological catch control rule from the current revision of the American Samoa bottomfish management unit species action. Instead, the Council will develop amendments to all its Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs) to incorporate the Tier 6 approach, ensuring this flexible, data-limited management tool can be applied consistently across all fisheries under its jurisdiction.

North Pacific Striped Marlin: Initial steps were taken to set a catch limit of 228.4 metric tons annually from 2025 to 2027, aligning with international conservation measures. The new measure cuts in half a guaranteed U.S. catch from the previous measure of 457 mt.

For more information, visit www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars

US Western Pacific council fighting push to name giant clams under Endangered Species Act

December 10, 2024 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), which has authority over the stewardship of fisheries in the state and territorial waters of Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Islands, is pushing back against a proposal to list giant clams in the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“I feel NMFS is just ramming this through the system,” said WPRFMC Council Member Sylvian Igisomar, who is also the chair of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Lands and Natural Resources.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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