“We congratulate NOAA Fisheries and the Trump Administration for these new efforts and stand as a resource as the agency begins implementation,” said Lisa Wallenda Picard, president and CEO of NFI.
Geographically, the most significant proposal is to fast-track the expansion and introduction of new commercial fishing operations at the Mariana Trench, Papahānaumokuākea, Rose Atoll, and Pacific Remote Islands national monuments.
These four protected areas currently shield “some of the last remaining relatively pristine ocean ecosystems,” according to NOAA.
Covering over 1.1 million square miles—an area almost double the size of Alaska—these habitats are home to millions of acres of coral reef and endemic species found nowhere else in the world, such as the Mariana snailfish and the Hawaiian pigfish.
Other backsliding includes applying new Endangered Species Act reforms that rescind longstanding interpretation of “harm,” and reducing the use of the conservation standards of Habitat Areas of Particular Concern in regulatory actions to “ensure protections are balanced with economic interests.”
