STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1281

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 309

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Higher Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 309, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FISHPONDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish a fishpond inventory working group within the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program to create an inventory and map of all fishponds on state land and conduct a literature review of Hawaiian language newspapers that includes any relevant sources used for collecting the inventory date; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Commission, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, University of Hawaiʻi System, Office of the Mayor of the County of Maui, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation, Hawaiʻi Ocean Legislative Task Force, The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy, Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition, and five individuals.

Your Committees find that fishponds, or loko iʻa, are an integral part of Hawaiian culture, history, and sustainability practices. Fishponds demonstrate the ecological knowledge of early Hawaiian communities and continue to play a significant role in the health of coastal ecosystems and adjacent communities. The maintenance and restoration of existing fishponds is therefore critical to the State's cultural, food security, and sustainability goals. Accordingly, this measure establishes a working group to develop an inventory of all state-owned fishponds, which is an important next step in protecting these invaluable resources.

Your Committees note that the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program maintains that it could conduct the project, as currently described, entirely in-house and without third-party consultants by leveraging the resources and expertise available to the Program, including graduate research students, faculty within the Program, and Hawaiian language experts at the University of Hawaii.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 309, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Higher Education,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair