Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific

This proclamation amends Proclamation 9173 (Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument Expansion) to permit commercial fishing within the monument, finding that the existing prohibition is not necessary to protect the monument's objects of scientific and historic interest. It prohibits the Secretary of Commerce from barring commercial fishing between 50 and 200 nautical miles from the monument's landward boundaries where the monument is coterminous with the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, restricts commercial fishing there to United States flagged vessels, and allows foreign flagged vessels to transship U.S.-harvested fish only by permit. It also directs the Secretary of Commerce, through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to expeditiously publish proposed rules amending or repealing regulations that restrict commercial fishing in the monument.

• National Interagency Fire Center (multi-agency coordination)

Immediate.

None.

No known legal challenges.