The Pacific Remote Islands Ocean National Monument (PIRNM) was founded in 2009 by then-President George W. Bush and extended in 2014 by his successor Barack Obama.
Today, it covers nearly 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles), or nearly twice as much as the Texas area, fixed near seven islands and atolls.
To date, commercial fishing and resource extraction activities such as subsea mining have been banned, although traditional and sports fishing are still allowed.
Trump said in an executive order on Thursday that the ban on “honest American commercial fishermen” were “driven…to fish further off the international waters to compete with poorly regulated and highly subsidized foreign fleets.”
He added: “Properly managed commercial fishing will not put objects of scientific and historical interest within Primnm at risk.” Primnm’s waters are home to uninfected coral reefs and many endangered species, including seabirds and sharks and certain types of whales and sharks.
Now, a large number of waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles (93-370 km) from the coast will now be partially open to commercial fishing for American ships.
Foreign vessels can be granted “license…to fish harvested by American fishermen,” the executive order reads.
Trump further ordered the administration to “modify or repeal all heavy regulations that restrict PRIMNM commercial fishing.”
The Republican president is a skeptic about climate change, and since he returned to the White House, he has targeted environmental regulations to reduce the impact of rules on business.
