STAND. COM. REP. NO. 330

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1169

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Tourism and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1169 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KAHOOLAWE ISLAND RESERVE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the offenses for which property is subject to forfeiture under chapter 6K, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve, including any activity prohibited by rules of the island reserve and any violation of rules regulating fishing in waters within the island reserve, and to clarify that property seized pursuant to conservation and resources enforcement actions may be forfeited and disposed of as provided by law.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Ocean Tourism Coalition.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Attorney General.

     Your Committees find that this measure serves as a deterrent to conservation and natural resource violations, thus strengthening the enforcement powers of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and protecting the natural resources of the island reserve.

     Your Committees agree with the concerns expressed by the Ocean Tourism Coalition that forfeiture is not intended to be used for inadvertent acts or emergency entries onto the island reserve.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that this measure does not apply to violations of rules regulating fishing in waters within the island reserve by persons or vessels within one nautical mile of the boundaries of the island reserve, on the recommendation of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Tourism and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1169, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1169, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Tourism and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________ BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair