[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 76 (Tuesday, April 22, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 16987-16989]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-07060]
[[Page 16985]]
Vol. 90
Tuesday,
No. 76
April 22, 2025
Part III
The President
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Proclamation 10918--Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the
Pacific
Proclamation 10919--250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and
Concord
Executive Order 14276--Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90 , No. 76 / Tuesday, April 22, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 16987]]
Proclamation 10918 of April 17, 2025
Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the
Pacific
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
(PRIMNM) was established by Proclamation 8336 of
January 6, 2009 (Establishment of the Pacific Remote
Islands Marine National Monument), and then further
expanded by Proclamation 9173 of September 25, 2014
(Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
Expansion). Under these monument proclamations, over
400,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean were
appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry,
location, selection, sale, leasing, or other
disposition under the public land laws for care and
management by the Federal Government.
The PRIMNM was established to protect and preserve the
lands and marine environment around Wake, Baker,
Howland, and Jarvis Islands; Johnston and Palmyra
Atolls; Kingman Reef; and the historic and scientific
objects therein. These objects include fish, birds,
marine mammals, coral, and the general biodiversity of
the ecosystems encompassed by the PRIMNM.
As part of the management of the PRIMNM, commercial
fishing is currently prohibited within its boundaries.
As explained herein, following further consideration of
the nature of the objects identified in Proclamations
8336 and 9173 and the protection of those objects
already provided by relevant law, I find that
appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put
the objects of scientific and historic interest that
the PRIMNM protects at risk.
With respect to fish in particular, fisheries in the
region are effectively managed by the National Marine
Fisheries Service and the Western Pacific Regional
Fishery Management Council. Management of the PRIMNM is
doing little to guard fish populations against
overfishing as tunas and other pelagic species found
within the boundaries of the PRIMNM are migratory in
nature, and do not permanently reside within the
PRIMNM.
As a result of the prohibitions on commercial fishing,
American fishing fleets have lost access to nearly half
of the United States' Exclusive Economic Zone in the
Pacific Islands. This has driven American fishermen to
fish further offshore in international waters to
compete against poorly regulated and highly subsidized
foreign fleets. This disadvantages honest United States
commercial fishermen and is detrimental for United
States territories like American Samoa, whose private
sector economy is over 80 percent dependent on the
fishing industry.
Proclamations 8336 and 9173 do not list recreational
fishing as a threat to local fish populations within
the PRIMNM. A host of Federal protections exist under
current laws and agency management designations to
protect the area's natural resources, vulnerable marine
species, and unique habitats, such as coral and
seamount ecosystems.
These laws include the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et
seq.), the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Endangered
Species Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-712), the National
Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 (16
U.S.C. 668dd-668ee), the Refuge Recreation Act (16
U.S.C.
[[Page 16988]]
460k et seq.), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (16
U.S.C. 1361 et seq.), the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C.
1251 et seq.), the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Oil
Pollution Act) (33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.), and Title I of
the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
(Ocean Dumping Act), 33 U.S.C. 1401 et seq. For
example, the Endangered Species Act generally prohibits
the taking of listed fish and wildlife species, and
also generally ensures that Federal actions, including
fisheries management, are not likely to jeopardize the
continued existence of any such species nor adversely
modify designated critical habitats. Numerous other
statutes, including the Clean Water Act, the Oil
Pollution Act, and the Ocean Dumping Act, address both
land-based and ocean-based sources of pollution and
help ensure that water quality conditions support the
conservation values of the Pacific Remote Island
ecosystems.
Therefore, I find that appropriately managed commercial
fishing would not put objects of scientific and
historic interest within the PRIMNM at risk.
After further consideration of the nature of the
objects identified in Proclamations 8336 and 9173 and
the protection of those objects already provided by the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act and other relevant laws, I find that a prohibition
on commercial fishing is not, at this time, necessary
for the proper care and management of the PRIMNM or the
objects of historic or scientific interest therein.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including section 320301 of title 54, United States
Code (Antiquities Act), hereby proclaim that:
(a) All language under the section entitled
``Management of the Marine National Monument'' in
Proclamation 9173 is deleted and replaced with the
following:
``Nothing in this proclamation shall change the
management of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine
National Monument as specified in Proclamation 8336.
The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the
Secretary of Commerce, shall have primary
responsibility for management of the Monument Expansion
pursuant to applicable legal authorities. The Secretary
of Commerce, through the Administrator of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and in
consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, shall
within the Monument Expansion have primary
responsibility with respect to fishery-related
activities regulated pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801
et seq.), and any other applicable legal authorities.
The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the
Interior shall not allow or permit any appropriation,
injury, destruction, or removal of any object of the
Monument Expansion except as provided for by this
proclamation as modified by the Proclamation of April
17, 2025 (Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the
Pacific).
Between 50 to 200 nautical miles from the landward
boundaries of the Monument, the Secretary of Commerce
shall not prohibit commercial fishing within the
boundaries of the Monument and the Monument Expansion
in those areas where the Monument and Monument
Expansion is coterminous with the Exclusive Economic
Zone of the United States. The implementation of any
regulation of commercial fishing within the Monument
and the Monument Expansion shall be done in
coordination with the Secretary of Defense. Only United
States flagged vessels shall be allowed to commercially
fish within the boundaries of the Monument and the
Monument Expansion, except that permits may be issued
to foreign flagged vessels to transship fish harvested
by United States fishermen.
The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the
Interior shall take appropriate action pursuant to
their respective authorities under the Antiquities Act;
the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act; and such other authorities as may be
available to implement this proclamation, to regulate
fisheries, and to ensure proper care and management of
the Monument Expansion.
[[Page 16989]]
The United States shall continue to preserve the
freedom of the seas (i.e., all of the rights, freedoms,
and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international
law and enjoyed by all nations, including the conduct
of military activities, exercises, and surveys in or
over the Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States),
and to protect the training, readiness, and global
mobility of the United States Armed Forces as United
States national interests that are essential to the
peace and prosperity of civilized nations.
The Secretary of Defense shall continue to manage Wake
Island and Johnston Atoll as specified in Proclamation
8336.''.
(b) The Secretary of Commerce, through the
Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, shall expeditiously publish new
proposed rules in the Federal Register to amend or
repeal all burdensome regulations that restrict
commercial fishing in the PRIMNM.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to
revoke, modify, or affect any withdrawal, reservation,
or appropriation, other than the one created by
Proclamations 8336 and 9173.
Nothing in this proclamation shall change the
management of the areas designated and reserved by
Proclamations 8336 and 9173, except as explicitly
provided in this proclamation.
If any provision of this proclamation, including its
application to a particular parcel of land, is held to
be invalid, the remainder of this proclamation and its
application to other parcels of land shall not be
affected thereby.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
ninth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2025-07060
Filed 4-21-25; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P