President Donald Trump in April decided to allow commercial fishing in parts of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument area, and his move is being challenged in federal court in Hawaii.
A federal District Court in Honolulu recently ruled that commercial fishing cannot legally continue in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIHMNM). The decision follows a proclamation from President Donald Trump that attempted to open this global treasure. The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council and industrial fishers continue to press the administration to change regulations that will undoubtedly impact these pristine waters and other Pacific marine monuments.
Over the past four decades, I have spent 12,000 hours underwater — from coral reefs to depths of thousands of meters — and have seen firsthand the last wild places in the ocean. The PIHMNM, located in the central Pacific about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, stands out as one of the most pristine places in the ocean and deserves the highest protections available.
The area contains species that are endangered, threatened or found nowhere else on Earth; these waters are dominated by sharks and other large predators that hold significant cultural and global importance. This special place gives us a unique window into oceans of the past, before extensive human exploitation.
Through my decades of scientific study, I have also witnessed the impact of large-scale industrial fishing. While the industry touts that their practices are not destructive, I have co-authored numerous studies that have documented their devastating impacts.
Let’s be clear. Any amount of industrial fishing in areas of richness threatens significant harm to the entire ecosystem. Industrial longlining, whose vessels set lines stretching more than 50 miles with 2,000 hooks, and purse seines, which surround over 100 metric tons of tuna in a single set, kill and injure animals that get in the way of their targeted catch, including sharks and sea turtles. Many of these species are at critically low levels globally and are unable to sustain even modest losses to their populations.
The removal of species can have significant ecosystem effects. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated that between 2019 and 2023, the Hawaii-based longline fisheries caught more than 600,000 blue sharks, which are recognizable by their vivid cobalt-blue dorsal coloration and long pectoral fins and are now tragically listed as near threatened. Endangered and critically endangered species — like the oceanic whitetip shark, once described as one of the most common large animals in pelagic waters but whose numbers have collapsed by 70%–95% — are also caught and often killed at alarming rates. These species should be able to roam free, without the daily threat of hooks or nets in their natural pathways.
The ocean and land are interconnected. Seabirds, which poop in nearshore waters, provide critical nutrients to coral reef ecosystems that boost their growth. Longlines and purse seine nets entangle and kill these birds while they search for food, affecting their populations and the corals that rely on their delivery of nutrients. The evidence is clear: industrial fishing in a highly productive, rich marine ecosystem has damaging effects on the species that call the area home.
It’s worth noting that Hawaii longliners don’t need these areas; they have consistently reached their annual bigeye catch quota, which is imposed under international agreement. Even after their bigeye quota was nearly doubled last year, the fleet still reaches its annual quotas without fishing in the treasured marine monuments.
While some industrial fishers may profit in the short-term from rushing into monument areas to strip the bounty that a decade-plus of protection has yielded, in the longer term, there will be fewer tuna to catch, resulting in declining catch rates that will ultimately harm commercial fishers themselves — and all of us who rely on a healthy ocean. This is a classic tragedy of the commons where unrestricted access to a shared resource leads to its overuse and depletion. It is our shared responsibility to protect — not exploit — the Earth’s last intact ocean ecosystems.
NOAA is seeking comments through Oct. 14 on proposed revisions to existing fishery regulations. Go to protectpih.org and alohacwg.com to sign petitions to say no rolling back marine monument protections.
Alan Friedlander, who recently retired as chief scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project, is an affiliate researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.