Critics argue the new NOAA agenda could weaken science-based rules and marine protections.

Lisa Wallenda Picard, president and CEO of NFI, praised NOAA Fisheries and the Trump Administration for new efforts. The most significant proposal involves fast-tracking commercial fishing expansion at the Mariana Trench, Papahānaumokuākea, Rose Atoll, and Pacific Remote Islands national monuments—areas covering over 1.1 million square miles.

These protected areas shelter some of the last remaining relatively pristine ocean ecosystems, home to coral reefs and endemic species like the Mariana snailfish and Hawaiian pigfish. NOAA is also implementing Endangered Species Act reforms that rescind longstanding interpretations of "harm" and reducing conservation standards in Habitat Areas of Particular Concern to balance protections with economic interests.

Janet Coit, former NOAA Fisheries director under President Joe Biden, warned that circumventing science-based limits threatens fish populations for future generations. NOAA spokesperson Eugenio Piñeiro Soler stated the agency is moving toward a science-based, common-sense system, but declined to specify which scientific protections remain. Coit emphasized that with climate change reshaping ocean ecosystems, rolling back protections is misguided.