STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2631
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 2284
S.D. 1
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Thirty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2022
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 2284 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AQUACULTURE,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to:
(1) Establish provisions of law relating to the Department of Agriculture's governing of aquaculture;
(2) Grant exclusive property rights to persons who lawfully obtain the cultured progeny of wild plants and animals by brood stock acquisition;
(3) Clarify that any person who takes aquaculture products without lawful entitlement shall be subject to prosecution for theft;
(4) Authorize the Department of Agriculture to regulate the transportation, purchase, possession, and sale of specific aquaculture products as may be necessary to protect indigenous species;
(5) Establish prohibitions relating to the spawning, incubating, or cultivation of transgenic fish species or any exotic species of finfish;
(6) Make exemptions for certain research activities; and
(7) Require the Department of Agriculture to prepare programmatic environmental impact reports.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hatch Aquaculture Fund Management LLC, and Kohala Mountain Fish Company. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Department of the Attorney General.
Your Committees find that diversification of the State's economy is necessary to lessen its economic dependence on tourism. Globally, seafood demand outpaces supply, making aquacultural industry a promising source of economic growth for the State. This measure supports expansion of Hawaii's aquaculture industry by clarifying and strengthening regulation of aquacultural production. However, your Committees also note the need for the Department of Agriculture to acquire land for aquacultural parks and the potential for significant environmental effects from aquaculture if it is not appropriately managed and regulated.
Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Removing provisions relating to prohibited and research activities regarding transgenic fish species or any exotic species of finfish;
(2) Removing the theft provision, for consistency;
(3) Clarifying that the business of aquaculture is exempt from other provisions relating to the harvesting, processing, and marketing of cultured aquatic life, not from provisions relating to commercial fishing;
(4) Reorganizing existing aquaculture provisions and new provisions of this measure as a new section in chapter 141, Hawaii Revised Statutes;
(5) Requiring the Department of Agriculture to acquire land for the purposes of aquaculture;
(6) Inserting an appropriation for four full-time equivalent (4.0 FTE) positions in the Department of Agriculture for aquaculture;
(7) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2022; and
(8) 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 Agriculture and Environment and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2284, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2284, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism,
________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair |
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________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
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