STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3028

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1911

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 1911, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AQUATIC RESOURCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct a study examining the feasibility of establishing a noncommercial fishing license program; and

     (2)  Appropriate funds for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct the study.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that the protection of aquatic resources is important for cultural, economic, and environmental reasons.  Wise management of aquatic resources is necessary to ensure that these resources are available for future generations.  Your Committee further finds that fishing licensing programs are an effective way to protect and conserve aquatic resources; however, the State currently requires licenses and reporting for commercial, but not noncommercial, taking of aquatic life.  The implementation of a noncommercial fishing license program and the gathering of more accurate data, such as species of fish that are taken noncommerically, the amounts that are taken, and the areas of the State from which fish are taken, would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to more effectively manage the State's aquatic resources.

     Your Committee has amended this measure, on the recommendation of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, by inserting an appropriation amount of $25,000.

     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 H.B. No. 1911, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1911, H.D. 1, 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,

____________________________

MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair