STAND. COM. REP. NO. 904

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1264

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1264, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMERCIAL FISHING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish limited entry commercial fisheries where appropriate or necessary to maintain sustainable and healthy fisheries.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and three individuals.

Your Committees find that existing law requires the Department of Land and Natural Resources to manage and administer the aquatic life and aquatic resources of the State. Successful aquatic resource management includes ensuring abundance while also allowing sustainable levels of take. However, certain commercial fishery resources have become depleted and can no longer sustain unregulated and unlimited harvest, as the Department of Land and Natural Resources is not authorized under existing law to establish limited entry commercial fisheries. Limited commercial entry is a management method in which an agency or governing body limits the number of participants or vessels participating in a certain fishery as a means of reducing commercial fishing pressure on a particular fish species or group of fish species while still allowing some commercial take. This measure authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish limited entry commercial fisheries to accomplish its goal of balancing sustainable yet commercially viable fisheries in the State.

Your Committees recognize that federal law preempts the Department of Land and Natural Resources' ability to cap or otherwise limit the number of entrants into commercial fisheries subject to federal fisheries regulations. Therefore, amendments to this measure are necessary to prevent a conflict between state and federal law.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language that limits the Department of Land and Natural Resources' ability to establish limited entry commercial fisheries to those that are not subject to federal fisheries regulations; and

(2) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1264, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1264, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair