Fishing village wants more DLNR enforcement on aquarium trade

MILOLII, Hawaii Island >> Retired California prison guard Paul Cox and his wife, Kary Jones-Cox, have lived in a subdivision just above this fishing village for nearly nine years.

From their hillside home, they have a panoramic, unobstructed view of the ocean.

Depending on the weather, Cox and his wife are on or in the water at least several times a week, diving, swimming, boating or paddling.

Yet for the entire time they have lived on the coast, they have seen a state Department of Land and Natural Resources boat in the area only once. DLNR oversees the aquarium trade.

And despite filing several complaints with the agency against aquarium dealers or collectors for alleged rule infractions, Cox added, none has resulted in fines or prosecutions, even when he has included photographic evidence.

Cox shared that information to underscore what he and many other fishers, divers and others told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: DLNR has too few resources to be able to provide sufficient oversight of the industry, including whether collectors still are using fine-mesh nets, their primary tool, to fish.

The Hawaii Supreme Court banned the use of such nets in September 2017 until DLNR evaluates whether they cause any significant environmental effects.

DLNR said it does not have information suggesting that collectors are continuing to use fine-mesh nets.

But critics contend the department is spread too thin to be able to police the industry.

“I don’t want to say the rank and file aren’t doing their job,” Cox said. “I believe they are. It’s 100 percent a resource issue.”

Some go a step further, saying DLNR is too close with the industry to provide effective enforcement.

But Bob Likins, a spokesman for the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, which filed environmental assessments to get DLNR to start issuing aquarium permits again, noted that the agency determined the filings were insufficient. “It’s ridiculous to say they’re too close and too chummy because DLNR rejected fishers in the end.”

Still, opponents of the trade maintain that DLNR’s oversight is so lax that unscrupulous operators can ignore the regulations, believing they are unlikely to be caught or, even if they are, will suffer little or no repercussions.

“Enforcement has always been lacking,” said Mike Nakachi, a Native Hawaiian fisher, diver and business owner on the Kona coast.

Asked about its enforcement actions against the trade, DLNR said it could find only one case statewide from its files. It happened in January 2018 near Milolii.

Fishers were collecting aquarium fish a day after DLNR had announced a ban along the entire West Hawaii coast, including the Milolii region, according to DLNR and Cox, who filed the complaint. But the collectors at the time had not received notification from the department about the prohibition, DLNR said.

Cox later was told the collectors were given a warning — and allowed to keep their fish.

DLNR has seven officers to cover West Hawaii. They are responsible for enforcing laws on state land and in state waters related to natural and cultural resources, coastal zones, conservation districts, firearms and other areas.

In written responses, DLNR said commercial aquarium collectors are required to be licensed and to submit monthly reports of their catch, including numbers and species taken.

Aquarium dealers also are required to submit weekly reports of their purchases from collectors.

“Gathering information from aquarium collectors and dealers allows the department to cross check the reports for inconsistencies or omissions,” the department said. It said it has no evidence of under-reporting.

But the department acknowledged that it has not been enforcing the dealer requirement and won’t do so until this summer when an online reporting system is operational and an outreach program is complete.

In 2014, the department told the Legislature that it had not implemented administrative rules for the weekly reporting requirement and therefore wasn’t enforcing it, essentially making the dealer reporting voluntary. Some dealers were aware of this, and a few weren’t reporting part or all of their purchases, DLNR told legislators.

The new rules were adopted in January 2018.

The department said it has no reason to believe chronic under-reporting of catch totals is happening, noting the threat of citations or license revocations provides a disincentive.