Trump Opens Atlantic Marine Monument To Fishing During Maine Roundtable

President Donald Trump waves as he disembarks Air Force One in Bangor on Friday. (Nick Woodward/Maine Public)

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation in Bangor on Friday that he says will undo most of the fishing restrictions President Barack Obama ordered for a 5,000-square-mile swath of submerged canyons and mountains off the Atlantic coast that’s prized for its biological diversity. A legal battle is expected.

Obama established the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in 2016. It’s an area 130 miles off Cape Cod, within an much larger underwater formation called Georges Bank that plays a big role in commercial fisheries based in New England.

At the Bangor roundtable with several representatives of Maine and Massachusetts fishing interests — as well as former Republican Gov. Paul LePage — Trump said he would take the “no fishing” sign down from the Monument’s waters.

“And we’re going to send our fishermen out there — you’re going to go fishing out there in areas that you haven’t seen for a long time, I want to just congratulate you,” he said.

Obama actually provided a 7-year exemption for lobster and crab fishermen, and conservationists say there are no Maine vessels fishing now in the area, which is a very long distance from the state. Trump’s action would likely benefit tuna and swordfish boats the most.

But Kristan Porter, a Cutler fishermen and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told Trump the Monument’s designation nonetheless harmed his industry.

“Well he [Obama] has done Maine a tremendous disservice, just from a common-sense standpoint. How could you let a thing like this happen?” Trump said.

Read the rest of this story at Maine Public’s website.