| Update 8/23/2024: In the hearing the history and acceptance of the contested EIS from the aquarium industry and court rejection of the appeal was presented. The BLNR was prepared to issue permits until quotas were discussed including 200,000 yellow tangs. Hawaiian community members objected to any collection of fish for recreational export . One commissioner offered to cut that quota in half. Others objected to the Kole (gold eyed tang) and black tang due to their importance to Hawaiian subsistence. Comments from the Kupuna Uncle Willy Kaupiko clarified the species and Hawaiian names unfamiliar to the Chair. The meeting ended with the board recosidering quotas but not ruling out collections in the future. |
The Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) is moving forward with their plan to re-open West Hawaiʻi to commercial aquarium collection (AQ) on behalf of the mainland businesses that sell wildlife for aquariums. They will ask the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to approve it on August 23. Outrageously, DAR is proposing this even though the validity of the EIS, upon which their plan is based, is still pending before the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, and also is ahead of the community’s petitioned rule making to prohibit commercial AQ statewide, which the Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously approved in December 2023. In an equally outrageous move, knowing BLNRs growing opposition to commercial AQ, DAR is also proposing to remove BLNR’s oversight of the trade and the ability for the public to have a voice, by giving sole AQ permitting authority to the Chair, who could sign off without the public even being notified, let alone given an opportunity to provide any input. Silencing community voices that have long opposed this activity and, shielding potential AQ collectors from public scrutiny is yet another in a long list of betrayals from DAR on behalf of the AQ pet trade. Please submit testimony in strong OPPOSITION to reopening our reefs to the destructive AQ trade and to silencing your voice regarding the ultimate permitting decisions (instructions below). Sample talking points: DAR has made multiple public statements that the Board, not the Chair, will determine whether to issue any AQ permits. Breaking that promise now is the ultimate betrayal of public trustThe benefits of leaving our fish on the reefs FAR OUTWEIGH the monetary gains of a handful of people who rake them off the reef for sale to the AQ pet trade outside HawaiiScientists say we must increase fish abundance if our reefs are to have a fighting chance against climate change impacts. Sacrificing tens to hundreds of thousands of important herbivores to an unnecessary and destructive activity contradicts best available science and common senseThe AQ trade fundamentally conflicts with local, cultural, and broad social values of our Hawaii home Please email your testimony to the Board ASAP. PRIORITY ACTION 1 – WRITTEN TESTIMONY submitted by Thursday morning, August 22: Email: [email protected] Email Subject: August 23; Agenda Item F.1 Email Body: Easy & powerful testimony: give your name, town and island, and a few heartfelt sentences, including why: BLNR should be the ultimate decision-makers on whether or not to issue AQ permits, not just the Chair of DAR staffNO AQ permits should be issued ACTION 2 – SPREAD THE WORD: Please forward this email to your friends and family and share on social media. See full meeting agenda with Zoom link/instructions for providing remote testimony here. Monitor meeting progress via YouTube livestream here. The meeting begins at 9:00, and though not in our hands, we will request that the issue be moved up on the agenda. |
