Is Our Marine Life Worth More Than Profit and Ego?

By: Isabella Cummings, Associate Editor 2026-2027        |        October 29, 2026

In recent times, our oceans and marine life have been facing a presidential administration that does not care about their well-being. The Trump administration has made it clear that its priorities lie with profit and ego through legislation and budget cuts. One of those priorities has been to “boost domestic seafood production” [1] and “revitalize American waterfront and fishing communities” [2] at all costs, despite a lack of necessity. Our country is not facing a shortage of seafood or waterfront communities. American imports about 80 percent of the seafood it eats, the seafood trade deficit reached $20.3 billion in 2023, and the United States ranked only tenth worldwide in seafood exports in 2022.[3] That gap is what the Trump administration takes issue with. But a trade deficit is not a shortage: seafood is available to American consumers, and climbing the global export rankings is a question of competitiveness, not necessity. To prevent stifling the country’s place in the competition of the global seafood marketplace and any potential profits, the Trump administration has chosen to minimize protections for marine life. [4]

Since returning to office, the current administration has issued presidential proclamations reopening protected marine monuments to commercial fishing: the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument [5] [6]. The administration also issued the proclamation Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific to guarantee further expansion. [7] The Pacific Islands proclamation alone will reopen nearly 500,000 square miles of previously protected federal waters, an area nearly twice the size of Texas, to commercial fishing, including in its most ecologically sensitive habitats. [8] Endangered marine life, including green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals, have been found to frequent the area and are now susceptible to harmful bycatch (the accidental capture of animals that fishers never meant to catch) risks through fishing practices like longlining, an industrial method that trails baited hooks along lines that can stretch for dozens of miles. [9]

Federal courts have issued rulings preventing the action from occurring in the Pacific Islands Heritage monument. A federal judge in Honolulu held that opening the monument to fishing without public notice was illegal and vacated the letter authorizing it. The existing ban stays in place until there is formal legislation and commercial fishing is prohibited.[10] The same protection has not reached the other monuments and hundreds of thousands of square miles remain open to harm[11][12]. Additionally, several of the affected protections were put in place or expanded on by President Obama. This suggests that these actions are not being done for the good of the country, but instead as a personal grudge of the current administration.

In another hit to the oceans, in March 2026, the U.S Department of the Interior began holding committee meetings to discuss exemptions to the Endangered Species Committee to consider exempting all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activity from the Endangered Species Act. The current administration is looking to allow oil and gas companies the ability to engage in offshore drilling off the Gulf of Mexico. Congress created the committee in 1978 to grant rare exemption, including when the Secretary of Defense finds one necessary for national security (16 U.S.C. § 1536(j)). Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made that finding on March 13, and on March 31 the committee voted to exempt all Gulf oil and gas exploration, development, and production from the Act’s requirements.[13][14] Drilling in this area puts one or more endangered species at serious risk, including certain sea turtles, fish, whales, and rays. Additionally, the “law provides the committee authority only in extreme circumstances to grant an exemption when there is no way for an activity to proceed without leading to the extinction of one or more species”,[15] with this being the committee’s first meeting since 1992.[16] The exemptions for oil and gas companies are entirely unnecessary. The United States is already producing more oil than any nation and prices at gas pumps will not be positively affected due to geopolitical conflicts, with crude output on track for a record 13.8 million barrels a day in 2026.[17][18] This action is an unnecessary attempt to create a profitable opportunity for the oil industry at the cost of our marine life.  [19]

In addition to specific proclamations, the administration’s budget agenda has also threatened pre-established organizations focused on marine life protections. The current administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal would cut more than $1.1 billion, about 17 percent, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with additional cuts suggested in the U.S House of Representatives’ Fiscal Year 2027 bill, which would cut NOAA operations by about 5.2 percent. [20] The budget cuts to the NOAA would limit their ability to “verify that foreign seafood fisheries are complying with U.S. whale- and dolphin-safe fishing practices” leading to harm to marine life. [21] The budget cuts will also mean that the NOAA would be less able to conduct marine mammal research and help support local marine animal rehabilitation organizations. [22]

Unfortunately, these actions by the Trump administration have been relentless over the course of this year. Hopefully as the rest of the term continues, advocates can find more ways to help fight for our marine life and oceans.