U.S. Environmental Policy

President Trump signed a proclamation reopening nearly 5,000 square miles of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, reversing Obama-era protections that President Biden had reinstated. He billed the move as an "America First Fishing Policy" to revitalize New England’s fishing industry and the economy, earning praise from industry figures like Atlantic Red Crab Company president John Williams and criticism from conservationists such as Oceana’s Gib Brogan who warn it threatens sensitive deep‑sea ecosystems, and it accompanies a broader deregulatory push to reduce regulatory burdens on fishermen.