STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2247

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3169

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 3169 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PROTECTION OF ENDANGERED AQUATIC MAMMALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish two seal coordinator positions in the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources Sanctuary Program.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Hawaii; Conservation Council for Hawai‘i; Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team; and twelve individuals.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources submitted testimony expressing concerns with this measure.

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaiian monk seal (monachus schauinslandi) has existed for over thirteen million years, longer than the Hawaiian Islands themselves, but has unfortunately suffered a rapid decline in its population over the past twenty years.  The population of Hawaiian monk seals is currently estimated at only 1,150 and experts predict that the population will be less than one thousand within the next four and a half years.  As a result, the Hawaiian monk seal is registered on the endangered species list and is the most endangered mammal in the entire United States.

     Your Committee further finds that to combat the rapid decline in Hawaiian monk seal population, the State requires the establishment of two seal coordinator positions within the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources Sanctuary Program that will:

     (1)  Enable the State to be in compliance with the incidental take permit conservation plan for the protection of registered animals on the endangered species list; and

     (2)  Enhance the coordination between the State and federal agencies with the objective of reversing the declining population of Hawaiian monk seals.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of clarity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3169, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3169, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair