A long-running battle between conservation groups and commercial fishers is flaring up once again.
The Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources is preparing to adopt new administrative rules governing aquarium fishing off the western shores of Hawai‘i Island.
These new rules would permit commercial aquarium fishing of eight specific species by up to seven permittees. Those permit holders would be subject to collective annual catch limits for each of those eight whitelisted species.
Despite the severe restrictions posed by the proposed rules, they would be a boon for a moribund industry, as aquarium fishing has been entirely banned in West Hawai‘i following a 2017 ruling by the State Supreme Court — the court found that DLNR had improperly permitted aquarium fishers to take vast amounts of fish without any environmental review.
But environmental groups believe the new rules fly in the face of the Board of Land and Natural Resources’ previous rulings on the matter.
“It’s a pretty big betrayal,” Rene Umberger, executive director of environmental group For the Fishes, told Aloha State Daily.
Umberger, who was one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that halted aquarium fishing, said that the BLNR in 2023 directed the DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) to develop stringent rules to regulate aquarium fishing, having decided that a total ban was not feasible or fair long-term.
At a 2023 meeting, BLNR Chair Dawn Chang told DAR that the new rules may determine an acceptable level of aquarium fishing that is “short of zero.” Umberger said that she and other environmentalists figured that “short of zero” would still be close to zero.
Instead, Umberger said, the catch limits within the new rules are unacceptably high. She claimed that, before the ban on aquarium fishing, seven permit holders could collectively bring in about 46,000 fish every year, but the new rules allow seven permittees to bring in more than 200,000.
“They’re just letting aquarium collectors back on the reef,” Umberger said.
Umberger said she and other advocates had suggested alternate rules that would still allow aquarium fishers to operate. For example, she said allowing unlimited take of non-native species could be beneficial for the ecosystem and would still allow fishers to collect attractive and photogenic specimens.
Alternatively, Umberger said she suggested a ban on taking yellow tang or other species currently available through captive breeding.
Instead, Umberger said, DAR has proposed rules that she believes cannot stand.
“I believe that the board will see that this is not what they asked for,” Umberger said. “I really don’t think the board will approve this.”
But the board on Friday is no doubt in for a long day. The 2023 hearing on the subject lasted for three days as hundreds of people testified, mostly in opposition to aquarium fishing.
A statement by For the Fishes published last week cited a poll that found that 84% of O‘ahu and Hawai‘i Island residents support permanently ending the catching of reef fish for commercial aquariums.
However, commercial fishers disagree. Commercial aquarium fisher Ron Tubbs has filed a contested case against the BLNR’s 2023 decision, although the board seems poised to deny it.
When asked to comment on the new rules, Tubbs presented ASD with a 2024 DAR report that found negligible differences in targeted fish populations across multiple ocean management areas before the ban on commercial aquarium fishing.
That report concluded that DAR found no clear evidence that previously proposed take limits — some of which were higher than those currently being discussed — will result in population declines that will impact the population’s long-term viability, and that DAR can effectively manage and mitigate any potential negative impacts by commercial aquarium fishing.
The BLNR will discuss scheduling public hearings on the new rules at its Friday hearing at 9 a.m.
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