Land and Natural Resources Council splits vote on aquarium fishing in West Hawaii

On Friday, the State Council of Land and Natural Resources could not reach a majority decision to accept or reject an environmental review assessing the impacts of commercial aquarium fishing in western Hawaii.

The seven-member board of directors had to decide whether a ‘revised final environmental impact statement’ properly addressed the possible outcomes of the issuance of permits that would allow the collection of aquarium fish in the regional fish management area. peaches of western Hawaii.

But the vote ended in a 3-3 tie.

Board members Thomas Oi, Wesley “Kaiwi” Yoon and James Gomes voted to reject the final revised EIS, while chairwoman Suzanne Case and board members Samuel Gon and Christopher Yuen voted to approve it. Council member Vernon Char was absent from the meeting.

State law requires a majority vote to take action, but the DLNR said in a press release that a tie results in environmental review approval if no resolution can be reached within 30 days. The 30 days began on June 8, when the EIA was published, although they can be extended for an additional 15 days at the request of the EIA applicant.

Commercial aquarium fishing in the WHRFMA has been a controversial issue for years, but a November Circuit Court order effectively banned all commercial aquarium fishing in Hawaii in January until the environmental review was completed.

Oi was unconvinced that the applicant who submitted RFEIS, the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, explained how it would help Hawaii, while Gomes was concerned that enforcement in the region would be a problem for a Land Department and natural resources already short of resources. .

“The state of Hawaii doesn’t profit from this aquarium fishing – that’s what I’m looking at,” Oi told the board, presumably referring to the argument that the pet fish industry out of state would benefit while stakeholders in Hawaii would bear the cost.

Yoon was concerned that the revised EIA was not done in good faith.

“One of the main intentions of any EIS is to try to strike a balance between the economy and the environment,” he said. “If the process was done with pono intentions and good deeds, we wouldn’t be at this major loophole here today.”

Those who opposed collecting aquarium fish pointed to a number of issues with reopening the fishery in addition to its potential impacts on fish stocks and other natural resources.

Lisa Bishop, president of Friends of Hanauma Bay, testified that the revised EIS “fails to accurately analyze the cultural and socio-economic consequences of aquarium collecting in West Hawaii” while ignoring research that shows Hawaii will not benefit from the fishery.

Case, on the other hand, praised the review.

“I myself have a lot of reservations about aquarium fishing. I don’t think that’s the only problem with our reef fish – we have overfishing issues in all categories, ”said Case. “But I think there has been a good faith attempt to respond to the comments we raised a year ago.”

In May 2020, the board of directors unanimously voted to reject a previous EIA, which Case attributed to a lack of real action to protect the future of depleted fish stocks.

She also noted that the revised EIA proposes to reopen commercial aquarium fishing with a “very strong limit”. Only seven licenses would be issued for the commercial capture of aquarium fish in the WHRFMA, and license holders would only be allowed to catch fish from a list that includes only eight species.

The revised EIS also proposes a catch quota that would allow the seven licensed fishermen to catch less than 247,000 fish per calendar year.

Prior to the collection ban, there was no annual catch limit in place, and an unlimited number of aquarium permits and commercial marine licenses, or CMLs, could be issued to catch fish of 40 different species. .

The DLNR said in November that of the 3,000 SMCs issued in total, 41 license holders were reporting aquarium catches.

The environmental review, along with its supporters, say the fishery can and has proven to be sustainable.

But even if the revised EIA is accepted, that does not mean that fishermen are free to start aquarium fishing. The Circuit Court, in its November decision to effectively ban commercial aquarium fishing, said the DLNR has discretion to issue, suspend or renew SMCs.

“This EIA is not the same as the issuance of (licenses for) aquarium fishing,” said Gon, adding that issues regarding “the licensing side of things or the management plans for this particular fishery” should always be treated if accepted. .

Hawaii’s 2017 commercial aquarium fishery, as described by PIJAC’s revised EIS, “was the most profitable commercial inshore fishery in the state.” He said the WHRFMA alone was responsible for $ 1.29 million in fishing income that year and 45% of the aquarium fish caught in Hawaii.

The fishery has been debated for decades, but in 2017, Hawaii Supreme Court and Circuit Court rulings banned the DLNR from issuing new aquarium licenses to catch fish for fish. aquarium.

Commercial capture of aquarium fish in western Hawaii was banned in 2018 before a Circuit Court ruling invalidated all SMCs in January of this year.