Monday April 21, 2025
Radio Free Asia —
U.S. President Donald Trump has opened a vast Pacific marine sanctuary to commercial fishing in a move the administration says will benefit American Samoa, a U.S. territory economically reliant on a single tuna cannery.
A Trump proclamation last week allows U.S.-flagged vessels to fish 50-200 nautical miles from land inside the protected area. The sanctuary encompasses waters around several islands, atolls and reefs that scientists say harbor among the most diverse marine life on the planet.
Protection of the 1.3 million square kilometer (495,000 square mile) sanctuary is doing little to guard against overfishing because tuna and other open seas fish species are migratory, according to the proclamation.
American fishing fleets have lost access to nearly half of the United States’ exclusive economic zone in the Pacific as a result of prohibitions on commercial fishing, it said.