By Sam Drysdale
State House News Service

President Donald Trump has reopened a long-running fight over ocean conservation and fishing rights, ordering commercial fleets back into federally protected waters off New England and setting up another legal showdown.

Trump on Friday revoked Biden-era restrictions and again opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — about 150 miles off Cape Cod — to commercial fishing, a move that drew criticism from environmental advocates and prompted the Conservation Law Foundation to say it is prepared to sue once again.

The decision reignited a decade-old conflict between the fishing industry and conservation groups over the fate of nearly 5,000 square miles of deep-sea canyons and underwater mountains that scientists say shelter rare corals, endangered whales and fish.

In his proclamation, Trump said the ban on commercial fishing was unnecessary, writing that "appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of historic and scientific interest that the monument protects at risk." He argued that many fish in the area "are highly migratory and not unique to the monument," and that "a host of other laws enacted after the Antiquities Act provide specific protection for other plant and animal resources both within and outside the monument."

The move marks the fourth time in less than a decade that a president has flipped federal policy on the monument, underscoring how sharply divided elected officials, advocates and coastal communities remain.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was created in 2016 by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act, protecting 4,913 square miles of ocean where the Atlantic meets the continental shelf. Recreational fishing was allowed, but commercial fishing was banned. The area includes three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and four seamounts — extinct underwater volcanoes — that rise thousands of meters from the ocean floor.

The monument protects habitat for endangered sperm, fin and sei whales, Kemp's ridley sea turtles, seabirds and fragile deep-sea corals, some thousands of years old. In 2016, then-Secretary of State John Kerry said reckless fishing practices were decimating marine resources.

Trump first reversed Obama's decision in 2020, lifting the commercial fishing ban while leaving the monument's boundaries intact. President Joe Biden restored the prohibition in 2021, citing the area's "unique geological features that anchor vulnerable ecological communities threatened by varied uses, climate change, and related impacts." Trump's Friday proclamation again returns policy to his 2020 approach.

Trump's order relies heavily on existing federal protections, arguing that laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act already safeguard vulnerable species and habitats, making a commercial fishing ban unnecessary.

Environmental groups counter that those protections are not substitutes for a fully protected marine monument and warn that allowing commercial fishing risks turning the area into what they call a "paper park."

The Conservation Law Foundation told the News Service it is prepared to sue the administration once more.

The group called Trump's action "a flagrant abuse of executive power" that "will pave the way for destructive activities that harm coastal communities, marine life, and ocean health." CLF said the decision is illegal and "flies in the face of public opinion," citing a 2022 poll of 3,500 New Englanders showing more than 80 percent favored permanently protected ocean areas.

"The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the most biologically productive areas in the Atlantic Ocean. It deserves our full protection," said Erica Fuller, senior counsel at CLF. "This latest attempt by the Trump administration to undermine the monument is not only unlawful, but it also demonstrates a blatant disregard for the health of our oceans. We will not stand by while his administration destroys vital habitats that are irreplaceable in our marine environment. We've fought this battle before, and we are ready to fight it again."

CLF, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the Trump administration over the 2020 proclamation and intervened in a 2018 federal suit challenging the monument's creation. According to CLF, both the federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the monument was created legally. The group says Trump again lacks authority to roll back core protections.

Fishing industry advocates applauded the decision.

"By reopening the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts to commercial fishing, fairness, transparency, and science-based governance has been restored to the affected fisheries," said Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood.

Vanasse said Trump's action reflects "a clear understanding of a simple truth: commercial fishing in the United States is already governed by the most comprehensive, science-based, and publicly accountable regulatory system in the world," pointing to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 

He criticized the original 2016 designation as a unilateral decision that excluded fishermen "without public hearings, without a cost-benefit analysis, and without input from those whose livelihoods were affected."

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, who leads the city that's home to the nation's highest-value fishing port, warned Congress during a hearing in 2016 that the monument designation process risked sidelining fishing communities. Appearing before the House Natural Resources Committee shortly after the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was created, Mitchell said the process "lacks sufficient amounts of all the ingredients that good policy-making requires: scientific rigor, direct industry input, transparency, and a deliberate pace."

Scientists and environmental groups strongly disagreed.

"This monument supports amazing species from the seafloor to the sea surface, and we see evidence of that during every aerial survey. Removing protections for Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument puts these species at risk," Dr. Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation science in the New England Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said on Friday.

Scientists say the steep underwater terrain of the protected area creates nutrient-rich upwelling that supports dense marine life, from plankton to the world's largest animals, including blue whales.

Massachusetts political leaders have long been caught in the middle, and were notably quiet following Trump's latest move.

When Obama designated the monument in 2016, then-Gov. Charlie Baker said he was "deeply disappointed," arguing the decision undermined Massachusetts fishermen and followed a public input process that "falls far short of any meaningful stakeholder process." 

Sent her predecessor's comments and asked to share her thoughts on Trump's latest decision to rescind restrictions of the protected waters, Gov. Maura Healey's office did not respond.

Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation also shared concerns in 2015 over the stakeholder engagement process, and urged the Obama administration to expand public engagement before acting.

"While you have clear authority under the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments, we ask that you engage stakeholders further before making a final decision… by expanding your stakeholder engagement efforts to include additional opportunities for our Massachusetts constituents to express their views on the potential designations in the context of ongoing conservation efforts," said a letter signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Reps. Stephen Lynch, William Keating and Seth Moulton in 2015.

Asked Monday about Trump's move and their earlier calls for a more robust public comment process, only one of the offices of the above lawmakers responded to the News Service.

"Congressman Keating continues to believe that stakeholder engagement and comprehensive public input should be the cornerstone of any decision made under the Antiquities Act, including the conflicting decisions made by Presidents Trump, Biden, and Obama surrounding the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument Any changes to monument protections must be handled through a transparent, public rulemaking process that respects community input," said Keating communications director Chris Matthews.

With CLF signaling another lawsuit, the future of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument once again appears headed to the courts — and subject to the next political tide.