A group of Native Hawaiians and three environmental organizations are challenging the legality of a move by President Donald Trump to permit commercial fishing within a Pacific marine monument.
The nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit in Hawaii on Thursday aimed at blocking an April 17 Trump proclamation allowing fishing by U.S.-flagged vessels in parts of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument south and west of Hawaii.
Trump lacks authority as president to strip protections from an established national monument, according to the complaint filed on behalf of a hui of Hawaiian cultural practitioners called Kapa‘a along with the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The lawsuit also alleges that the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service informed fishing permit holders April 25 that they could begin to fish in the area, even though federal regulations haven’t been amended to allow it under a process required by law that includes an opportunity for affected parties to provide input.
“Piling lawlessness on top of lawlessness, the National Marine Fisheries Service chose to carry out President Trump’s illegal proclamation by issuing its own illegal directive, with no public input,” David Henkin, deputy managing attorney in Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific office, said in a statement. “We are counting on the courts to put a stop to the Trump administration’s disregard for the rule of law and to preserve the monument’s precious and vulnerable resources for future generations.”
President George W. Bush in 2009 established an initial form of the monument, originally known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, that created national wildlife refuges with commercial fishing bans radiating out 50 miles around Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands; Johnston, Wake and Palmyra atolls; and Kingman Reef.
In 2014, President Barack Obama expanded the protected area to 200 miles around Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll and Wake Atoll to create the world’s largest marine protected area.
The monument covers about 490,000 square miles, making it nearly five times the size of all the U.S. national parks combined and nearly twice the size of Texas, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Trump, who considered rolling back protections in the monument area during his first term as president in 2017, said in his proclamation that the fishing ban affected nearly half of the country’s exclusive economic zone around U.S.-administered islands in the Pacific where American fishing fleets could exclusively operate, and put the industry at a disadvantage.
The president also said the ban has been detrimental for American Samoa, a U.S. territory, where the fishing industry represents over 80% of private-sector economic output.
Furthermore, Trump’s proclamation, which is titled “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,” contends that fisheries in the region are effectively managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.
Under the proclamation, commercial fishing by U.S.-flagged vessels was to be permitted only in the expanded monument area created by Obama — from 50 to 200 miles around Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll and Wake Atoll in waters a half-mile or more deep — pending formal rule amendments.
The move was celebrated by the Hawaii Longline Association and the Honolulu-based Western Pacific Fishery Management Council.
“We are very grateful in Hawaii for this,” Kitty Simonds, the council’s executive director, told Trump during a proclamation signing ceremony.
Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, said one day after the proclamation was issued that the past three years have been the least profitable ever for Hawaii’s longline fleet of 150 vessels that largely land tuna and swordfish.
Kingma added that 70% to 80% of the industry’s catch stays in Hawaii and that the “dockside value” of fish in 2024 was $110 million, compared with $120 million in 2021.
“You can have both ocean protection as well as allowing sustainable fisheries to occur,” he said at the time. “They can be compatible.”
The lawsuit contends that fishing in the monument area added by Obama threatens a vast range of marine wildlife, including endangered species, in part due to bycatch.
Monument waters, according to the lawsuit, are habitats for 22 species of protected marine mammals, including a variety of turtles, sharks and manta rays.
The lawsuit also said millions of seabirds, including protected species, feed in monument waters and would be affected because they rely on schools of predatory fish such as tuna to scare smaller marine animals to the surface where they can be caught by the birds.
“President Trump’s proclamation threatens to destroy one of the world’s last healthy and wild ocean ecosystems,” Jonee Peters, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, said in a statement.
“Commercial fishing would remove large numbers of fish, sharks, turtles, and other marine life as both intended catch and unintended by-catch,” Peters said. “This would completely disrupt the underwater ecosystem and wreak havoc on the food chain. Many of these creatures and areas are culturally important to the people of Oceania, for traditional and modern navigation, and as a valuable food source.”
Solomon Pili Kaho‘ohalahala, founding member of Kapa‘a, said bycatch is an affront to Native Hawaiian practices and beliefs.
“President Trump’s proclamation threatens the ability of future generations to survive and thrive,” he said in a statement.
Maxx Phillips, a Hawaii and Pacific region director and staff attorney for the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, described Trump’s proclamation as an assault on the Pacific’s cultural heritage and biodiversity.
“For generations, Pacific Islanders have revered these ocean areas as sources of food, knowledge, and spiritual connection,” Phillips said in a statement. “Dismantling these protections threatens not only marine life but the cultural practices that are inseparable from this place. These waters deserve protection, not plunder.”
