Big Island Shoal (c) Ret Talbot
The Hawaii Legislature is in session, and there are ten* aquarium fishery- and trade-related bills before legislators. Only two of the bills are new, as the rest are ones automatically carried over from last year. Hawaii’s Legislature operates on a two-year term that begins in an odd-numbered year and ends in an even-numbered year.
Of the ten bills, two would close the State’s aquarium fishery if they became law. Yesterday was the cutoff date for new bills introduced into the Hawaii State Legislature for the 2016 regular session.
The two new bills are:
- “HB 2022 – Relating to Aquatic Life”
- “HB 2025 – Relating to Marine Species.”
The two carried-over ban bills are (links are to my articles published last year about each bill):
The remaining bills are (links are to my articles published last year about each bill):
- “SB 1340 – Relating to Aquarium Fish”
- “HB 483 (HD1 SD1) – Relating to Ocean Resources”
- “HB 511 – Related to Harassment”
- “HB 670 – Aircraft Transfer of Animals”
- “HB 873 – Relating to Aquatic Life“
- “HB 883 – Related to Aquarium Fish”
For a more comprehensive rundown on each bill (with an emphasis on the two newly introduced bills), see my article at Reef to Rainforest.
*CORRECTION: The original version of this article omitted SB 670. -ED
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