The reopening of waters off Hawaii’s Kona coast to aquarium fishing took a step closer to reality after a state board decided to put forth a set of proposed rules for public hearings.
The Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources on Friday voted unanimously to approve the proposed rulings, a required step in the process of opening up waters again to the harvesting of fish from local waters to be sold as pets in saltwater aquariums worldwide.
BLNR’s decision came after hours of testimony, mostly in opposition to the controversial practice, which environmentalists and Hawaiians consider destructive and extractive to Hawaii’s reef, and which animal activists consider cruel to the fish themselves.
The commercial collection of aquarium fish has essentially been banned due to requirements statewide in Hawaii since 2017.
Since then, there have been a series of legal battles over permits and environmental impact statements and more recently, questions over BLNR’s authority to prohibit commercial aquarium collections in Hawaii for good.
In December 2023, BLNR unanimously approved a petition from various community groups seeking to put the prohibition in place, but was subsequently told by the state Attorney General’s office that they did not have the authority to do so.
With BLNR’s approval of the rules on Friday, two public hearings on the proposed rules are now to be scheduled early next year — one in-person on Hawaii island and one to take place virtually statewide.
The precise dates have not yet been announced, but the state can revise the proposed rules based on public testimony.
“The Board’s decision is disappointing, given the overwhelming weight of public testimony urging the Board to fundamentally rethink these rules before sending them out to the public,” said West Hawaii resident Mike Nakachi, a cultural practitioner long opposed to aquarium fishing, in a statement. “But we will be ready as a community to show up and testify in strong opposition to these rules; DLNR better make sure they have a big room and plenty time for these public hearings.”
The board’s vote signals a significant move toward opening up waters again for commercial aquarium fishing, an about-face from 2023, according to Nakachi, a party in past lawsuits who opposes the practice for both ecological and cultural reasons.
“For us, as Hawaiians, you take what you can from the ocean to enjoy it that day, to feed yourself that day,” he said. “I go back to something real simple in traditional customary Native Hawaiian practices and three major pillars — No. 1, aloha aina; No. 2, malama aina; No. 3, aina momona — unconditional love of this aina, to take care of what we have, and the third, which is more critical than anything, you want the aina to be in abundance.”
He added, “There are none of those traditional or customary practices that apply to the aquarium trade. It’s the polar opposite.”
Those pushing to reopen West Hawaii waters to aquarium fishing said, however, that it can be sustainable. They also said the process has been unfair, given that the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council did complete an environmental impact statement, then revised it with scientific and cultural considerations.
Kim Koch testified the number of species allowed was reduced from 40 to eight, and quantities reduced to such a small amount that “it is equivalent to death by a thousand cuts.”
BLNR rejected the first EIS submitted by PIJAC, now known as the Pet Advocacy Network, in 2020, and were split 3-3 on a revised EIS submitted in 2021 which was thus, accepted by default.
Aquarium fish collectors said it has been a blow to their livelihoods, and that they are being unfairly targeted.
DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources said Friday that an independent review of aquarium fishing with proposed catch limits conducted in April 2024 found overall risks to the major population and ecosystem impacts to be low.
Additionally, DAR found that with the proposed rules, the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area would be “the most intensively managed fishery occurring in state waters.”
Before taking a vote, BLNR made two amendments to the proposed rules in response to testimony.
The board reduced the eight aquarium fish species that would be allowed for collection to five, removing those considered Hawaiian food sources, including the Chevron tang, the goldring surgeonfish, and orangespine unicornfish.
The five species to be collected under the proposed rules include the yellow tang, the bird wrasse, Potter’s angelfish, Thompson’s surgeonfish, and brown surgeonfish.
Additionally, the total annual catch quota for yellow tangs was reduced from 200,000 to 100,000 as they are being raised in captivity.
The battle over aquarium fishing will continue to play out in the courts.
Earthjustice attorney Mahesh Cleveland said he’s filed suit to clarify whether BLNR can or cannot prohibit aquarium fish collections through administrative rules.
According to Earthjustice, a recent poll found 84% of Oahu and Hawaii island residents support permanently banning the commercial capture of reef fish for the aquarium pet trade.
The proposed rules run contrary to public opinion, Earthjustice said, in addition to BLNR’s prior decision to accept a community-led ban proposal.
Earthjustice said robust populations of reef fish are crucial to supporting ecosystems already challenged by ocean heat waves, pollution, and decades of commercial extraction.
Additionally, commercial collectors target juvenile native fish species using fine-meshed nets, Earthjustice said, and the fish are bagged and shipped via air freight to pet stores, with evidence suggesting most die within the first year in home aquariums.
Nakachi said Hawaiians have witnessed firsthand that populations of fish in certain areas have not yet rebounded from all of those years of commercial extractions.
Source: The Garden Island
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