STAND. COM. REP. NO. 467
Honolulu, Hawaii
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
Thirty-First State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1344 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD SUSTAINABILITY,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the appropriate departmental agency, to prepare and periodically update a functional plan for seafood sustainability that expands the State's priority on food by including wild seafood as a viable food source.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from United Fishing Agency, Ltd.; Waialua Boat Club; Hawai‘i Fishermen's Alliance for Conservation and Tradition, Inc.; Fishing Tales with Mike Sakamoto; and thirteen individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Office of Planning.
Your Committee finds that past inclusion of fish and seafood as part of the State's food security and self-sufficiency plan has been noticeability absent much to the detriment of our citizens. Fishing and seafood are integral parts of our community, culture, history, sustainability, and self-sufficiency objectives. Your Committee finds that the State's largest food producing entity is fishing; eighty to ninety percent of locally caught fish stays in the islands.
Your Committee also finds that while understanding Hawaii's seafood sustainability is an important aspect to the planning of Hawaii's overall food sustainability and food security, the Office of Planning recommends that the most appropriate functional plan to integrate wild seafood sustainability is the State Agricultural Functional Plan. The State's Agricultural Functional Plan was last updated in 1991 and would benefit from an update sought by this measure.
Your Committee has heard the concerns of the Department of Agriculture that they have no role in regulating pelagic fisheries and has no authority to set policy, establish objectives, or take enforcement action on seafood sustainability. The Department of Agriculture's expertise and regulatory oversight authority with regards to fish and seafood is limited to net-pan aquaculture and other farm-raised seafood.
Your Committee has
amended this measure by:
(1) Incorporating
the wild seafood sustainability plan update into the State Agricultural Functional
Plan;
(2) Inserting
the Office of Planning as the appropriate departmental agency to coordinate
with the Department of Agriculture;
(3) Extending
the timeline to update the functional plan by one year to 2023; and
(4) Making
technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and
consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1344, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1344, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,
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________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
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