Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2006, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit the sale of all Hawaiian species of edible opihi.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, a councilmember from Maui county, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that in recent years, the number of edible opihi in Hawaii has declined, and the popularity of opihi as a delicacy has led to over-harvesting on Oahu and made opihi hard to find on the neighbor islands.

Your Committee notes that concerns about the measure's impact on the residents of Niihau require further consideration. Your Committee has amended this measure to insert a defective effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for continued discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2006, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2006, S.D. 2.