Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was established in 2009 by then-President George W. Bush in his final days in office, and former President Barack Obama expanded the monument’s protections five years later. However, an April proclamation by President Donald Trump rolled back the 2014 safeguards in an effort to “unleash” United States commercial fishing in the central Pacific Ocean.
The Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Kapaʻa, an “unincorporated association of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners,” are seeking to stop the president from having his way.
