Court overrides Trump officials’ rollback and blocks fishing in Pacific Islands monument | Trump administration

A federal judge in Hawaii judged that commercial fishing is illegal in the national monument of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine, an area protected by the federal government in the central peaceful ocean.

The decision of judge Micah WJ Smith reverses a letter of April published by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) – also known as the Fishing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – which made it possible to fish in certain parts of the monument that Barack Obama had protected during his presidency. The letter occurred a week after the presidential proclamation of Donald Trump to reverse fishing regulations through the national monument, a World Heritage Site which includes archaeological treasures, marine mammals, sea birds and coral reefs.

Regulations prohibiting commercial fishing in the region remain in force, according to Friday’s decision. The court said that “no commercial fishing operator can reasonably count” on the April letter, which means that fishing in waters of 50 to 200 naval miles around Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island and Wake Island must stop immediately.

“The fisheries service cannot ignore our prospects as an indigenous people who belong to the islands and the ocean around us,” said Salomon Pili Kaho’ohalahala, founding member of the Kāpaʻa non -profit group, of the Conservation Council for Hawaii and the Center for Biological Diversity. “The law guarantees a process where we can defend the protection of the generations of the children of our children who have not yet been born.”

The Earthjustice Environment Conservation Group, representing non -profit organizations in Hawaii, filed its pursuit in May and argued that the NMFS violated the federal law by bypassing the official process of modification of fishing rules, which requires a public opinion and a comment.

“The court forcefully rejected the scandalous affirmation of the Trump administration that it can dismantle vital protections for unique and vulnerable species and ecosystems of the monument without involving the public,” said Termjustice lawyer David Henkin.

Then, President George W Bush created the sea monument in 2009. It consists of around 500,000 miles m² (1.3 million km2) in the central ocean far from the Pacific in the southwest of Hawaii. Obama widened it in 2014.

As part of his efforts to make the “dominant seafood chief of the world”, Trump qualified the regulations “so horrible and so stupid” – and said that they are forcing fishermen “to go and travel four to seven days to go fishing in an area that is not as good”.

The national marine monument of the distant islands of the Pacific is approximately 370,000 kilometers m² (1,270,000 km2), almost twice the size of the state of Texas. It is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Noaa and the Ministry of Defense. The monument houses one of the largest collections of areas protected by coral reefs and shore birds on the planet. It provides refuge to species threatened by the climate crisis and other stressors of humans.

The Kingman reef, considered one of the most virgin coral reefs in American waters, is also part of the monument. UNESCO reports that it has the largest proportion of Apex predators of any coral reef studied worldwide.

Its waters house several species of sharks, including gray reef, ocean white, hammers and silky sharks, which all play an important role in maintaining ecological balance.

In addition to the ecological value, the islands and the oceanic areas inside and next to the monument have great value to the Aboriginal islanders and researchers in the Pacific. The trial indicates that allowing commercial fishing in the expansion of the monument would harm the “cultural, spiritual, religious, subsistence, educational, recreational and aesthetic interests” of a group of indigenous Hawai complainants who are genealogically connected to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific.

“This is a huge victory for the irreplaceable marine life of the Pacific and for the rule of law,” said Maxx Phillips, lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, about Friday’s decision. “These sacred and irreplaceable ecosystems shelter endangered species, corals on the high seas and a rich cultural heritage.”

Associated Press contributed to this report