Trump opens Pacific marine monuments to U.S. tuna fleets

American tuna boats got a new chart to watch, but not a green light to steam straight into the reopened zones. Donald Trump signed a June 11 executive order that lifted restrictions across nearly half a million square miles of Pacific monument waters, yet the practical change for captains is still in front of them, not under the hull: federal scrutiny and rulemaking still stand between the proclamation and actual fishing.

The biggest piece sits off Hawaii. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument spans 582,578 square miles, and NOAA said the action gives U.S. fishermen closer access to tuna and other pelagic species there and in the other reopened monument waters. Two smaller but still significant blocks were also opened: the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument near Guam, at about 95,216 square miles, and Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in American Samoa, at about 13,436 square miles. For longline operators and charter captains tracking where the fish may be, those are the only newly reopened areas that could change the running lanes. The rest of the Pacific tuna grounds outside those monument boundaries were not part of this move.

The White House said the waters had been closed off under prior presidential proclamations by George W. Bush in 2006 and 2009 and by Barack Obama in 2016. It framed the reversal as part of an “America First Fishing Policy” meant to support domestic seafood competitiveness, while NOAA and NOAA Fisheries said the decision reflected feedback from the U.S. fishing industry. Howard Lutnick said the move would create economic opportunity, and NOAA said it aligned with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the 1976 law that created the 200-nautical-mile U.S. fishery conservation zone.

That legal foundation is also why nobody should treat the reopened waters as instantly fishable. Civil Beat reported that access still must move through federal scrutiny and rulemaking before commercial vessels can work those grounds, and NOAA said fishing inside the reopened areas will still be managed under federal law and scientific oversight. Earthjustice said it would challenge the proclamation in court, while Hawaiian cultural practitioners and conservation groups warned that the Pacific monuments protect endangered wildlife and sacred places.

For tuna fleets, the immediate story is not a boom in water tomorrow morning. It is a map change, a regulatory fight, and a clock: until the rulemaking lands and the court battle plays out, the reopened monument boxes are potential fishing ground, not open water.