STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 235

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 131

H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 131 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MARINE RESERVES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to protect, replenish, restore, and conserve the State's marine resources and ecosystems by requiring the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to create and manage a statewide marine reserves network by 2010, consisting of marine reserves encompassing a minimum of 20 percent of the State's marine waters around each of the main Hawaiian Islands.

The Ocean Law & Policy Institute of the Pacific Forum CSIS, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, Community Conservation Network, Hawaii Audubon Society, and two individuals testified in support of this bill. Matson Navigation Company offered comments. DLNR, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and many individuals opposed this measure.

Your Committees find that the existing piecemeal, small, and scattered marine protected areas contribute to the declining health of the State's marine resources. A comprehensive statewide system of marine reserves can restore and protect the marine resources for generations to come, if not in perpetuity.

Your Committees have amended this bill by, among other things:

(1) Renaming the Hawaii Marine Reserves Network as the Hawaii Marine Managed Areas System;

(2) Postponing the establishment of the System to 2020 instead of 2010;

(3) Specifying that a pilot project shall be first established on Kauai to be followed thereafter on an island-by-island basis. Your Committees believe that this incremental approach is consistent with the current fiscal limitations facing the State. At the same time, however, the Committee on Judiciary may wish to consider West Hawaii as an alternative pilot project site due to its four established marine life conservation districts, four fisheries management areas, one fish replenishment area, and one traditional fishing area;

(4) Deleting provisions prohibiting organized group or commercial users from conducting activities within a reserve;

(5) Replacing the creation of marine stewardship advisory councils as well as a statewide coordinating group with a more informal public participatory advisory process;

(6) Deleting provisions making it unlawful to destroy or possess certain resources from the marine reserves;

(7) Reducing the penalties for violations; and

(8) Deleting provisions that would have allowed DLNR to bring an administrative, or civil, action to recover the costs of replacing the lost use of the resource pending its restoration or replacement, including enforcement action costs.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 131, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 131, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________ HERMINA MORITA, Chair		____________________________ EZRA R. KANOHO, Chair
		____________________________ SCOTT K. SAIKI, Chair