STAND. COM. REP. 223
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: H.B. No. 581
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2003
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 581 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SHARK FEEDING,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to discourage the feeding of sharks by increasing the penalties for violating the prohibition against shark feeding.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources and a concerned citizen submitted testimony in support of this measure.
Your Committee finds that feeding sharks not only endangers the person feeding the sharks, but also tends to cause these animals to equate humans with food, thereby endangering other people and contributing to the unwarranted conclusion that sharks do not have redeeming qualities and should be pushed to extinction. Your Committee defers to the Committee on Judiciary to determine whether decriminalizing the crime of shark feeding from a petty misdemeanor to a civil violation with high civil fines is severe enough to effectively discourage shark feeding.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 581 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs,
____________________________ EZRA R. KANOHO, Chair |
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