NOAA Proposes Reopening About 408,000 Square Miles of Pacific Marine Monument to Commercial Fishing, Comments Due Dec. 9
NOAA Fisheries has proposed a rule that would amend regulations prohibiting commercial fishing in the expansion waters of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, reopening the waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles around Johnston Atoll, Wake Island and Jarvis Island — an area of about 408,000 square miles. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on November 9 (91 FR 70827), and public comments are being accepted through December 9.
Under the proposal, the longline and purse seine fishing now permitted outside the monument would be allowed in those waters, regulated under existing laws including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act and the South Pacific Tuna Act. NOAA Fisheries said in the Federal Register notice that the proposed rule supports the long-term sustainability of U.S. fisheries and provides for the proper care and management of the monument and the objects of historic or scientific interest in it.
The waters have been closed to commercial fishing since the monument's expansion in 2014. In April 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation seeking to reopen the area, and NOAA Fisheries then issued a letter treating the ban as no longer applicable. A federal judge later ruled that letter unlawful and required the agency to use the regular rulemaking process, and fishing was halted by the court in August 2025. After an amended proclamation in June 2026, the agency turned to a formal proposed rule. In March, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted to recommend restoring fishing access in portions of four Pacific marine national monuments.
Conservation groups have publicly opposed the proposal. The Center for Biological Diversity said the new proposal ignores the scientific opinion presented in last year's litigation that commercial fishing would harm the monument's ecosystems and species. In 2025, Kāpa‘a, the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice, won the lawsuit that halted commercial fishing inside the monument. The Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition said NOAA Fisheries describes the expected effects on protected species and cultural resources as negligible in the proposed rule, and cited the agency's own analysis that the expected benefit to fishing operations is likely minor, mainly fuel savings and a chance for purse seine vessels to avoid fees for fishing in foreign waters.
Comments can be submitted on Regulations.gov under docket NOAA-NMFS-2026-2410 by December 9. NOAA Fisheries will review the comments before deciding whether to issue a final rule.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Johnston Atoll 航拍资料图，拟议规则涉及该环礁周边50至200海里水域。美国政府公共领域照片（DF-ST-92-02431），经 Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Aerial view of Johnston Atoll, U.S. government public domain photo (DF-ST-92-02431), via Wikimedia Commons
