PUBLIC LANDS WATCH

Pacific Marine National Monuments (Papahānaumokuākea, Pacific Islands Heritage, Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll)

Central and Western Pacific Ocean (Hawaii, Mariana Islands, American Samoa region) · Marine National Monuments · managed by NOAA / National Marine Fisheries Service; Department of the Interior

Status: Active — proclamations signed, regulatory rulemaking and litigation ongoing Threat: Commercial fishing access opened within protected monument waters
Scope
Place file — a specific parcel of public land
Coordinates
25.0, -171.0
Page last verified
2026-08-17
Site maintainer of record
Alicen M.
Last edit
2026-08-17 by Alicen M.
File
/pacific-marine-monuments

01 — Historical & Cultural Record

The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (formerly the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument) was first established by President George W. Bush in 2009 and covers nearly 500,000 square miles of ocean. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, is the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area under the U.S. flag; its marine portions were designated the nation's 18th marine sanctuary in Biden's final days in office.139 The Mariana Trench and Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments were also established under the Antiquities Act. Together, these four monuments were designed to protect coral atolls, deep-sea trenches, and remote islands, and habitat for numerous threatened and endangered species.93

02 — Current Threat

On April 17, 2025, President Trump signed Proclamation 10918, opening the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing and directing the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior to review other marine monuments for the same purpose.21 On June 11, 2026, he signed a second proclamation (PP 11035), "Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific," removing certain monument-based commercial-fishing prohibitions in three areas: the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument (more than 16,000 square nautical miles); the Mau Zone and Ho'omalu Zone plus waters seaward of 50 nautical miles within Papahānaumokuākea; and waters between 12 and 50 nautical miles around Rose Atoll — together covering roughly 690,000 square miles.4578 The proclamation also modified Proclamation 10918, directed agency rulemaking "to amend or repeal inconsistent regulations," and directed the Secretary of Commerce to assess the use of enforcement discretion in the interim.14 Separately, on February 6, 2026, Proclamation 11009, "Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic," opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic to commercial fishing; NOAA published a final rule on April 6, 2026 rescinding the Magnuson-Stevens Act commercial-fishing restrictions there. That monument now has its own case file at /sites/northeast-canyons-seamounts/.36 As of June 25, 2026, commercial fishing remained formally prohibited within the Pacific Islands Heritage monument under existing NOAA/NMFS regulations — meaning the June 11 proclamation requires subsequent NMFS notice-and-comment rulemaking before commercial fishing can lawfully proceed in the newly opened Pacific zones, per the Congressional Research Service.1

03 — Documented Impact: Environmental

Geology/Ocean Features: These monuments protect coral atolls, seamounts, and — in the case of the Mariana Trench monument — the deepest points in the world's ocean, along with associated deep-sea ecosystems that are poorly studied relative to shallower waters.

Habitat & Endangered Species: Papahānaumokuākea and the Pacific Islands Heritage monument sustain species including corals, reef sharks, sea turtles (green and hawksbill), giant clams, groupers, humphead and Napoleon wrasses, bumphead parrotfish, dolphins, and whales, along with numerous threatened, endangered, and depleted species.1310

Fisheries/Ecological Function: Conservation groups argue these protected "safe haven" areas function as fish population reservoirs that help replenish and sustain surrounding commercial fisheries — specifically citing that U.S.-based tuna fleets otherwise hit their annual catch limits without the reproductive buffer these no-fishing zones provide.10 Opening these areas to commercial harvest risks undermining that buffering function over time, a systemic (basin-wide, multi-year) effect rather than a localized one.10

03 — Documented Impact: Cultural & Archaeological

Not yet documented — awaiting a specific cited assessment of impacts on Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander cultural or subsistence practices tied to these waters.

03 — Documented Impact: Economic & Fiscal

President Trump stated the June 2026 proclamation would "support millions of dollars in annual harvest" without citing a specific total figure in available primary sourcing. No independent, cited third-party economic analysis quantifying total projected harvest value, job creation, or offsetting cost to protected-species recovery programs was identified for this specific proclamation as of this page's last verification. Conservation groups argue the unquantified economic case must be weighed against the documented ecological "safe haven" effects described above.

03 — Documented Impact: Legal Status

In August 2025 the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs in Kāpaʻa v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-00209 (D. Haw.), vacating an April 2025 NMFS letter that had declared the Pacific Islands Heritage monument open to fishing and holding that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act's notice-and-comment requirements.31 Earthjustice, representing Kāpaʻa, the Conservation Council for Hawai'i, and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed that suit in May 2025 challenging Proclamation 10918's legal authority under the Antiquities Act, and has stated it will pursue further litigation over the June 2026 proclamation.10 The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has pressed for restored commercial access, citing the Magnuson-Stevens Act as the governing framework for fisheries management in these waters.118

As of August 17, 2026, the NMFS Federal Register rulemaking implementing Proclamation 11035 for the Pacific monuments — which the proclamation directs but which the agency had not been confirmed to have published — was not located, and no open comment deadline was on record.

03 — Documented Impact: Human Health

Not applicable in the direct sense (this is a fishing-access policy change, not a construction or extraction project); no dedicated human-health impact study was identified as relevant to this specific action.

03 — Tribal / Public Consultation Status

Not yet documented — a Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander community consultation record specific to the June 2026 proclamation was not identified in current sourcing, and formal organizational resolutions (for example from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs) were not located as of August 17, 2026. The since-vacated April 2025 NMFS letter was specifically found by a federal court to have violated Administrative Procedure Act notice-and-comment requirements, indicating a documented process failure for the earlier, related action. Friends of Midway Atoll has published guidance on the public-comment procedure for the rulemaking the June 2026 proclamation directs.12

04 — Named Companies & Responsible Parties

05 — Recorded Opposition & Support

06 — Timeline of Developments

07 — Sources

Primary

Secondary

Corrections Log

None on record as of 2026-08-12 (page last substantially expanded).

Take Action

NOAA/NMFS rulemaking to implement the June 2026 proclamation was ongoing as of last verification; no published public comment deadline on record.

Sign / comment on the public record for Pacific Marine National Monuments (Papahānaumokuākea, Pacific Islands Heritage, Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll) →