The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument sat off-limits to commercial fishermen for years. That changed in early 2026, when President Trump signed a proclamation reopening its waters to commercial fishing — a move that sent ripples through the New England fishing industry and reignited a long-running debate over who gets access to some of the most productive waters on the Atlantic coast.
But the story isn't as simple as throwing the doors wide open. The reality is more complicated, shaped by existing environmental regulations that were already on the books long before Trump picked up his pen.
What Is the Monument, and Why Does It Matter?
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument covers a stretch of deep Atlantic waters southeast of Cape Cod. It encompasses four underwater seamounts — Bear, Mytilus, Physalia, and Retriever — and three submerged canyons known as Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia. These aren't just scenic geography. They're among the most biologically rich areas in the entire western North Atlantic, supporting deep-sea corals, highly migratory fish, red crabs, and a range of pelagic species that commercial fishermen have long wanted access to.
President Obama originally designated the Monument in 2016. Commercial fishing was prohibited under the designation, a decision that drew immediate opposition from the New England fishing industry. Lobstermen, crabbers, and groundfishermen argued the closure locked them out of waters their families had fished for generations, for the benefit of an environmental agenda they had no say in crafting.
For nearly a decade, those fishermen watched the Monument's waters sit largely untouched by commercial activity while recreational anglers — who were never banned — continued fishing there under existing permits and limits.
The Proclamation That Changed Everything
On February 6, 2026, President Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 11009, titled "Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic." The proclamation removed the prohibition on commercial fishing within the Monument's boundaries, effectively reversing a core restriction that had defined the Monument since its creation.
NOAA Fisheries had previously incorporated the Monument's commercial fishing ban into federal regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. With Trump's proclamation in place, NOAA published a final rule conforming those federal fishing regulations to the new policy. The rule was filed in the Federal Register, making the change official across the regulatory framework that governs U.S. fisheries management.
The move was welcomed by commercial fishing advocates who had spent years lobbying against the closure. To them, this was long overdue recognition that working waterfronts and the communities that depend on them had been sidelined in favor of preservation policies that offered little economic benefit to the people who live and work along the coast.
What's Actually Open — and What Still Isn't
Here is where the details matter, because not everything inside the Monument is now fair game.
A separate set of regulations — the New England Fishery Management Council's Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment — remains fully in effect. That amendment, approved by NOAA Fisheries back in 2021, created the Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area. It prohibits the use of bottom-tending commercial fishing gear throughout a large swath of the outer continental shelf, in waters 600 meters deep or more, stretching out to the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary.
The overlap between that coral protection area and the Monument is significant. By some estimates, the deep-sea coral regulations cover roughly 82 percent of the area within the Monument's boundaries when it comes to bottom-tending gear. Trump's proclamation does not touch those coral protections. They were established through a separate fisheries management process and remain unchanged.
Breaking Down Who Can Fish, With What Gear, and Where
What does the reopening actually allow in practical terms?
Commercial red crab fishing is now permitted anywhere within the Monument's boundaries. Red crabbers, who use pot gear to target Chaceon quinquedens in deep Atlantic waters, had been shut out entirely. They can now fish throughout the Monument without restriction under the proclamation, since pot gear used in red crab fishing is specifically exempted from the deep-sea coral regulations.
Commercial Atlantic Highly Migratory Species fishing — which covers tunas, swordfish, sharks, and billfish — is also now permitted throughout the Monument. These are pelagic species that spend their lives in the water column rather than near the bottom, so the coral protection rules that apply to bottom-tending gear simply don't come into play. Longliners and other vessels targeting these species can now legally operate within the Monument.
Pelagic fishing more broadly is open throughout the Monument as well. That covers species that live and feed in open water rather than on or near the seafloor, which makes them compatible with the existing coral protection framework even in the Monument's deepest zones.
Bottom-tending gear — otter trawls, dredges, trap and pot gear beyond the red crab exception — can now be used inside the Monument, but only in the portions that fall outside the Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area. That limits bottom fishing to a relatively smaller portion of the total Monument footprint, primarily in shallower areas that don't overlap with the coral zone.
Why the Coral Protections Still Matter
The Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area exists for reasons that go beyond the Monument debate. Deep-sea corals are slow-growing organisms — some live for hundreds or even thousands of years — and they provide critical habitat structure for fish species that matter commercially. Bottom-tending gear like trawls and dredges can cause severe and long-lasting damage to these habitats.
The New England Fishery Management Council developed the coral amendment through a multi-year process that involved fishing industry stakeholders, scientists, and environmental groups. It was implemented in 2021 and has bipartisan support within the fisheries management world, even among many who backed reopening the Monument to commercial fishing.
The practical result is a two-layer regulatory landscape inside the Monument. Presidential Proclamation 11009 determines whether commercial fishing is allowed at all. The deep-sea coral regulations then determine what kinds of gear can be used and in what specific zones. Fishermen operating in the Monument now need to understand both layers to stay in compliance.
Recreational Fishing Was Never the Issue
It's worth clarifying one point that sometimes gets lost in the broader policy debate. Recreational anglers were never prohibited from fishing in the Monument. Throughout the entire period of the commercial ban, recreational fishing continued under the same permits and catch limits that existed before the Monument was designated.
That distinction has always been at the heart of the commercial fishing industry's argument against the Monument closure. From their perspective, the ban wasn't about conservation in any comprehensive sense — it was a targeted restriction that affected working fishermen while leaving recreational access untouched. Trump's proclamation brings commercial access more in line with the recreational access that was already there, though the gear restrictions in the coral protection area still apply in ways that recreational fishing isn't subject to.
A Shift in Federal Ocean Policy
The Monument reopening is part of a broader pattern in the Trump administration's approach to federal ocean and resource policy. The administration has moved to expand domestic energy production, ease restrictions on commercial activities in federally managed areas, and reduce what it characterizes as regulatory overreach in industries like fishing, mining, and agriculture.
For the commercial fishing industry — and for the port communities from New Bedford to Gloucester that depend on it — the Monument decision is a concrete policy win after years of advocacy. Whether it translates into significant increases in catch and economic activity will depend on the species available within the accessible portions of the Monument, the economics of fishing those specific waters, and how the regulatory framework around the coral protections continues to evolve.
For now, fishermen heading into the waters southeast of Cape Cod are operating under a new set of rules, with more opportunity than they had a year ago — and a set of boundaries they need to know cold before they drop their gear.
