The last 18 months have been an absolute nightmare for U.S. ocean and conservation policy. But here are the top ten worst things (in no particular order) this administration has done to marine conservation.
1. Opening Papahānaumokuākea to fishing
In June 2026, a sweeping executive proclamation tore down commercial fishing bans in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. This remote Hawaiian oasis is home to apex predators, sacred cultural heritage, and species found nowhere else on earth. Opening these waters to longlines and industrial fishing fleets threatens the very heart of the Pacific.
2. Rolling back Mariana Trench protections
The administration didn’t stop at Hawaii. The June 2026 rollbacks also targeted the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument. Dropping commercial prohibitions in the deepest undersea ecosystem on the planet is a severe blow to unstudied deep-sea biodiversity.
3. Opening Rose Atoll to industrial fishing
The administration stripped protections from the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. Opening this highly biodiverse sanctuary to industrial fishing gear endangers pelagic species like sharks, whales, and sea turtles that depend on the atoll’s intact ecosystem.
4. Sacrificing New England’s underwater canyons and seamounts
Back in February 2026, the administration also took aim at the Atlantic, dismantling commercial fishing restrictions within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. This area features fragile deep-sea corals and important whale habitats, all now exposed to industrial fishing.
5. Pacific Islands Heritage Monument
Initiating this cascade of monument rollbacks, an April 2025 proclamation opened the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to industrial fishing fleets. While courts have pushed back, the administration’s strategy seems to be to dismantle the entire U.S. marine monument system.
6. Leasing American Samoa for deep-sea mining
In an incredibly reckless move, the administration announced plans to lease over 31 million acres of federal waters off American Samoa for deep-sea mining. Resurrecting Cold War-era mineral laws, this untested technology risks devastating benthic habitats and potentially releasing toxins into the marine food web. Noise, light, and other disturbances will also be introduced to habitats that have remained largely pristine for millennia.
7. Trying to blind ocean science
The administration attempted to defund and dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). By ordering the removal of over 900 deep-sea monitoring instruments, they nearly blinded global researchers tracking ocean currents and climate collapse. Although a massive bipartisan Senate backlash forced a temporary course reversal, the attack on foundational and essential data collection was a major shock to the ocean science community.
8. Hamstringing the Endangered Species Act and removing protections against the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico
Under a joint final rule between the Departments of Interior and Commerce, the administration officially stripped habitat destruction from the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act. Even worse, they pushed to invoke a rarely used committee (the so-called “God Squad”) to bypass existing protections for the critically endangered Rice’s whale and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, in order to allow and ease the expansion of oil and gas exploration and extraction activities.
9. Permitting seismic air guns in the Atlantic
Reversing previous moratoriums, the administration moved forward to greenlight seismic air gun blasting for oil and gas exploration along the Atlantic coast. These acoustic blasts are one of the loudest man-made sounds, sending acoustic waves through kilometers of the ocean and the underlying seabed. This high intensity sound can injure marine mammals (such as the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale), kill crabs and lobsters, and disrupt fisheries.
10. Fishing and aquaculture deregulation
Through the sweeping “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” Executive Order, the administration mandated that federal agencies immediately suspend, revise, or rescind regulations that supposedly “burden” commercial fishing and aquaculture. By forcing NOAA to prioritize short-term industrial yield over scientific management, the policy actively undermines decades of work to end overfishing and rebuild collapsing stocks.
