Earthjustice filed a lawsuit this month to block President Trump from allowing commercial fishing in the Pacific Island Heritage Marine Reserve.
We heard the take from the Western Pacific Fisheries Council and their concern for the future of the last remaining cannery in American Samoa.
Today, we hear more about the science and arguments for not relaxing the protections in that area of the Pacific from Bob Richmond, a coral scientist and the head of the University of Hawaiʻi Kewalo Marine Laboratory.
He has worked in Guam, Samoa, Palau and Hawaiʻi for nearly five decades, and unpacked the science behind protecting the reserve area for the future.
“For the fisheries that are targeted in this discussion of the marine monuments, these are, in fact, what are called pelagics, meaning open ocean, free-moving fish, and so for that reason, we look at the ocean as a shared resource,” Richmond said.
