STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1522

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.R. No. 70

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.R. No. 70, S.D. 1, entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION TO COLLABORATE TO FORM A PERMANENT PLAN TO PROTECT HUMPBACK WHALES FROM VESSEL STRIKES WITHIN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS HUMPBACK WHALE NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY AND REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE A PLAN TO PROTECT HUMPBACK WHALES AND WHALE-VESSEL CONTACT INFORMATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect humpback whales in state waters.

     More specifically, this measure requests the Department of Land and Natural Resources to:

(1)  Collaborate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to form a plan to protect humpback whales from vessel strikes within the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (Marine Sanctuary);

(2)  Report to the Legislature, with the assistance of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a plan for the Marine Sanctuary to address the threat from whale-vessel contacts, no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2014; and

(3)  Report annually to the Legislature, beginning June 1, 2014, on confirmed whale-vessel contacts within the Marine Sanctuary in the preceding twelve months.

     Your Committee finds that the humpback whale is protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  Each year, approximately ten thousand humpback whales migrate to Hawaii's waters.  Your Committee finds that, between the years of 1979 and 2013, there have been eighty confirmed contacts between whales and marine vessels and that these contacts cause significant harm to the whales.  Accordingly, this measure encourages the creation of a permanent plan to protect humpback whales from vessel strikes.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 70, S.D. 1, and recommends its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair