President Donald Trump
rolls back restrictions on commercial fishing in New England marine monument.
Washington — President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Friday that opened the Atlantic Ocean’s only fully protected marine sanctuary to commercial fishing, dismissing arguments that crab traps, fishing nets and lines dangling hooks can harm fish and whales.
Fishing can fully resume at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, Trump said. More than 4,000 miles of ocean were closed in the last days of the Obama administration to save whales and allow marine life to recover from overfishing. The controversial decision was praised by conservationists and challenged by commercial fishermen from the start.
A coalition of fishing groups sought unsuccessfully to overturn the monument designation in federal court. They lost in both federal district court and in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, and said they might seek to push the case to the Supreme Court.
“We’re opening it up today,” Trump declared during a roundtable discussion with commercial fishermen and Maine’s former Republican governor, Paul LePage. “We’re undoing his executive order. What was his reason? He didn’t have a reason in my opinion.”
Trump praised LePage for supporting the seafood industry and condemned Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat elected last year, for slowly reopening Maine’s economy as a safety measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said Mills, who was not invited to the event, is “like a dictactor.” Mills’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The session was attended by crabbers and lobstermen, part of a $1 billion industry in Maine, who took turns praising the president. Some complained that they couldn’t sell to Britain because of unfair tariffs, which Trump said could be easily fixed by raising taxes on British goods.
And they repeatedly slammed the Obama administration for closing off the conservation area to fishing. In fact, the Obama administration had considered widening protections in the area beyond 5,000 miles but scaled it back after the state’s fishing industry expressed concern, conservationists said.
In a statement issued Friday, Mystic Aquarium said, “In 2016, Mystic Aquarium and the Connecticut delegation were instrumental in the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the only one of its kind, in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean. Today, on World Environment Day, we are stunned and dismayed to learn of the administration’s announcement to roll back protections of the Northeast Monument by opening the region to commercial fishing.”
“While saddened by this latest development, Mystic Aquarium will not be deterred. We will continue to expand our ocean conservation work and inspire our community to join us in our efforts,” it said in its statement.