in effect
Proclamation 10918, signed April 17, 2025, is a presidential proclamation that modifies the management rules for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM). It removes the existing ban on commercial fishing within portions of the monument and directs federal agencies to update their regulations accordingly.
Commercial fishing by U.S.-flagged vessels is now permitted in the zone between 50 and 200 nautical miles from the monument’s landward boundaries, where the monument overlaps with the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone — an area that had been closed to commercial fishing since 2009. Foreign-flagged vessels remain banned from fishing there, but may receive permits to transship (transfer at sea) fish caught by U.S. fishermen. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is directed to promptly publish proposed rules in the Federal Register to repeal or revise existing regulations that restricted commercial fishing in the monument. Fisheries management authority in the reopened area shifts to the Secretary of Commerce under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, coordinated with the Secretary of Defense. The inner 50-nautical-mile zone and all other monument protections and management rules remain unchanged.
U.S. commercial fishing operators, particularly those based in Pacific territories like American Samoa, gain access to fishing grounds in the Pacific that were previously off-limits to them. Federal agencies — primarily NOAA and the Department of the Interior — must revise their monument management rules and regulations. Conservation organizations and entities with interests in the monument’s protected ecosystems are affected by the reduced restrictions within the reopened zone, though other federal environmental laws (such as the Endangered Species Act and Magnuson-Stevens Act) continue to apply.