Report Title:

Fishing Rights and Regulations

Description:

Requires the department of land and natural resources to:  review each rule adopted after 01/1/08, concerning the protection and propagation of certain aquatic life or the conservation and allocation of the natural supply of aquatic life; determine whether the rule has achieved its intended purpose; and submit a report.  Sunsets on 12/31/20.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2687
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to aquatic resources.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that over the past ten years, the department of land and natural resources has adopted rules concerning the protection and propagation of introduced and transplanted aquatic life, and the conservation and allocation of the natural supply of aquatic life that have greatly diminished the public's ability to utilize Hawaii's aquatic resources.  In some instances, the public has criticized the department of land and natural resources for setting bottom fish area closures, shoreline access boundaries, and other fishing restrictions in an arbitrary manner without scientific evidence to support the department of land and natural resource's position.

     The legislature further finds that the responsibility of protecting our limited natural resources must be balanced with the equally important responsibility of ensuring the public's reasonable use of these resources.

     The purpose of this Act is to require the department of land and natural resources to review its rules and to determine whether the rules have achieved their intended purpose.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  The department of land and natural resources shall:

     (1)  Review each rule adopted after January 1, 2008, pursuant to chapters 187A and 188, Hawaii Revised Statutes, concerning the protection and propagation of introduced and transplanted aquatic life or the conservation and allocation of the natural supply of aquatic life in any area, including rules that establish size limits, bag limits, open and closed fishing seasons, specifications and numbers of fishing or taking gear that may be possessed, or that restrict public access to the natural supply of aquatic life; and

     (2)  Determine whether each rule has achieved its intended purpose.

     (b)  The department of land and natural resources shall submit a report, including an analysis of whether the rules have achieved their intended purposes and the impact of the rules on user groups, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2009 regular session, and every three years thereafter.  The department of land and natural resources may include the report as part of its annual report to the legislature.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval and shall be repealed on December 31, 2020.

INTRODUCED BY:

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