STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1912

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   S.B. No. 1093

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 1093, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OCEAN HEALTH CONSENSUS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to ensure the health of our ocean ecosystem by appropriating funds for the development of an ocean health consensus project by the Center for Conservation Research and Training of the University of Hawaii to build community-based consensus in Hawaii for managing ocean ecosystem resources.

     The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and several concerned individuals testified in support of this bill.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources supported the intent of this measure.  A concerned individual opposed this bill.  The John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa provided comments.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1)  Specifying that a coordinated, transparent process is to be established to create community-based consensus for developing marine resource regulation to manage Hawaii's ocean resources;

     (2)  Eliminating need as a basis for consensus-building;

(3)  Adopting an adaptive management approach rather than a precautionary approach as one of the principles the project is to be based on;

(4)  Using a professional facilitator to assist participants the project in determining roles and responsibilities, ground rules, and desired goals, outcomes, and benchmarks, rather than having the project participants clarify who is to be in charge;

(5)  Requiring consensus agreement on all ideas discussed and considered, rather than just the most important interests of all participants;

(6)  Requiring the consultation of:

(A)  The director of the Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research of the University of Hawaii;

(B)  The director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology;

(C)  The director of the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center; and

(D)  The Administrator of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Islands;

(7)  Requiring the Center for Conservation Research and Training to submit to the 2008 Legislature, a report on the outcomes of the ocean consensus project, to build community-based consensus that explores viable options to establish a coordinated, transparent process for developing marine resource regulations to manage Hawaii's ocean resources; 

(8)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2020, to encourage further discussion; and

(9)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1093, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1093, S.D. 2, H.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair