STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2643

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3167

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 S.B. No. 3167 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.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Big Island Reef Keepers Hui and three individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is an interstate compact agency that helps state resource management agencies and the fishing industry sustainably manage Pacific Ocean resources. The Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission's mission "to promote the better utilization of fisheries—marine, shell, and anadromous, which are of mutual concern, and to develop a joint program of protection and prevention of physical waste of such fisheries in all of those areas of the Pacific Ocean over which the compacting states jointly or separately now have or may hereafter acquire jurisdiction" closely aligns with the mission of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to manage, conserve, and restore the State's unique aquatic resources and ecosystems for present and future generations. This measure will allow the State to be a valuable contributor toward the mutual goal of better managing Pacific Ocean fishery resources.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring that at least one commissioner appointed to the Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission have knowledge of Native Hawaiian cultural and fishing practices and shall serve as a representative of the Native Hawaiian fishing community;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

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 S.B. No. 3167, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3167, 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