STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3333

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2478

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2478, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PACIFIC MARINE FISHERIES COMPACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Governor to execute a compact on behalf of the State to cooperate in the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaii Fishermen's Alliance for Conservation and Tradition.

Your Committee finds that the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) is an interstate compact agency that helps state resource management agencies and the fishing industry sustainably manage Pacific Ocean resources, particularly those that cross jurisdictional boundaries. While the PSMFC possesses no regulatory or management authority, it provides a number of vital functions that are relevant to the State, such as a forum for the discussion of interstate fisheries resource management, coordinating fisheries-related research and management projects, and the dispersal of federal fishery disaster funds. This measure will make the State member of the PSMFC, which may be a valuable contributor toward the members' mutual goal of better managing pacific ocean fishery resources.

Your Committee has amended this measure by specifying that at least one commissioner appointed to the Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission shall have knowledge of Native Hawaiian cultural fishing practices and shall serve as a representative of the Native Hawaiian fishing community.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2478, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2478, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair