STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1186-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2395

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2395, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE TAKING OF MARINE DEPOSITS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Department of Land and Natural Resources to approve permits for research, education, management, or propagation purposes that include the taking of marine deposits seaward of the shoreline, as long as the resources will be returned to the beach if possible and pose no risk to the environment.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program.

Your Committee finds that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is not authorized under existing law to approve permit requests that involve the taking of sand, dead coral, coral rubble, rocks, soil, or other marine deposits from state waters for research, education, management, or propagation purposes, despite being often requested for such permits. Your Committee believes that the law was not intended to prevent research, education and management, or propagation activities and as such, the Department should be authorized to approve these types of permits, subject to certain conditions.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the taking of the resources must pose no more than a minimal or negligible risk to the environment, instead of no risk to the environment; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2395, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2395, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair