A full suite of bills related to aquarium fishing continues to move ahead at the state Capitol, and several are set to be heard in the House Committee on Judiciary Friday.
On tap is House Bill 873, which began as a ban on the sale of aquatic life but instead was altered to set up a limited entry system for aquarium fishing permits and bag limits. The current system imposes no limits on permits or harvest.
Following the passage of a second reading on the House floor on Feb. 18 and revisions by the House Committee on Ocean, Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs on Feb. 12, the provision sets up an aquarium fish conservation program within the state Division of Aquatic Resources.
Among other monitoring activity, the program will develop certification requirements and conditions of eligibility for aquarium fish permit holders.
Additionally, permit holders will have to satisfy regulators that they have the facilities to keep their catch alive and healthy, under the bill’s provisions. The legislation requires a fatality rate of 1 percent or less for all aquatic life collected.
Also slated for consideration by the Committee on Judiciary Friday is HB 511, which prohibits harassment of people engaged in fishing, including collecting for aquariums. HB 483 would allow for state inspections without probable cause of the boats and catch containers of commercial fishermen and wholesalers within the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area. The legislation, aimed at poaching, lack of enforcement and the burden of establishing probable cause, is also being mulled in the Judiciary Committee Friday.
Stronger bills — one that would have banned aquarium fishing for 10 years and another that would have outlawed the sale of fish that have been treated inhumanely — never made it out of a Feb. 12 Ocean, Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs Committee meeting.
Several pieces of the legislation were introduced and backed by Big Island lawmakers. They have generated thousands of pieces of testimony.