July 6, 2023 — Fishermen, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac), StarKist Samoa cannery workers, and multiple U.S. federal and local government officials representing Pacific territories are all pushing back against NOAA’s plans for an expanded marine sanctuary around the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM).
In March 2023, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden proposed the creation of a new marine sanctuary that would protect roughly 770,000 square miles of ocean, which if created, would be the largest marine protected area in the world.