The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council took another step toward restoring sustainable commercial fishing in waters within several Pacific marine national monuments, considered pristine when they were established.
The Council directed its staff to continue analyzing existing regulations in the Pacific Islands Heritage, Rose Atoll, Marianas Trench and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monuments (MNMs), with a final recommendation planned for consideration at its March 2026 meeting.
Recent presidential directives have instructed federal agencies to identify ways to reduce regulatory burdens and expand opportunities for commercial fishing in monument waters. In response, the Council is preparing a range of options aimed at returning commercial fishing to these areas under sustainable management.
“Prior to the establishment of the monument in 2009, we stewarded our own waters. With the monument, only the feds are in charge and no one else has a say,” said Council member Nathan Ilaoa, director of American Samoa’s Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources. “This initiative before the Council provides an opportunity to talk about how the people want to manage their resources rather, than being told what to do by the feds,” he said.
The Council also supported a recommendation to ask the president not to use the Antiquities Act to manage fisheries in federal waters.
Ilaoa said monument fishing prohibitions undermine the people’s ability to fish and provide food for the community.
“Pacific Island people are unfairly required to bear the burden of the country’s environmental guilt, and the monuments represent a large inequality in how our peoples are treated.”
Council members wrestled with potential enhanced management measures and stressed the need for additional data. Council
Chair Will Sword said, “If you don’t go fishing, you can’t get the data.” Council member Gene Weaver added, “The Council’s existing regulations provide more than adequate protection, and we can learn from the fishing that occurs to determine if anything more is needed.” Members emphasized that if commercial fishing is restored, it must be done the right way: under existing federal fishery management authority, with strong monitoring and clear performance measures.
