STAND. COM. REP. NO. 414

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 648

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 648 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AQUACULTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require and appropriate funds for the University of Hawaii, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, to establish and administer an aquaculture disease diagnostic laboratory; and

(2) Establish and appropriate funds for an Aquaculture Veterinarian position within the Department of Agriculture.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, Local Food Coalition, Aquaculture Planning and Advocacy, HIplan, Hawaii Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association, and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Your Committees acknowledge the importance of Hawaii's aquaculture industry to ongoing food security and sustainability efforts in the State. Your Committees find that Hawaii residents consume seafood at twice the national average and yet, imports about sixty-three percent of its seafood. Due in part to the State's prior commitments, Hawaii's aquaculture industry continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of Hawaii agriculture and has become an important source of seafood and other products for local sale and export. Your Committees further find that currently, aquaculture samples are sent to the University of Arizona for testing, which creates delays in decision-making and action. Thus, this measure appropriates funds to support the Aquaculture Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, which will provide timely and accurate diagnostic services for all sectors of livestock development, including aquaculture. Additionally, this measure appropriates funds for one full-time (1.0 FTE) Aquaculture Veterinarian position within the Aquaculture and Livestock Support Services Branch at the Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industry.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Establishing the proposed laboratory within the State Veterinary Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industry rather than the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources;

(2) Replacing references to the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources with the Department of Agriculture;

(3) Adding two additional full-time equivalent (2.0 FTE) Microbiologists III (SR-20) positions to the Aquaculture and Livestock Support Services Branch of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industry; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 648, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 648, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair