The Environmental Court’s Nov. 27 ruling was clear: All commercial aquarium collection, statewide, regardless of gear used, is illegal. The state has been violating the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act (HEPA) by allowing commercial aquarium collection to continue under commercial marine licenses without first completing environmental review.

In the three years since the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a similar ruling regarding aquarium collection permits, a reported 570,000 animals have been illegally taken for personal aquariums outside Hawaii.

Instead of complying with this court ruling, the state authorized at least 41 collectors to continue extracting reef wildlife until their illegally issued one-year licenses expire.

How much damage can these collectors cause? With license expiration dates in sight, a run on the reefs should be expected, which could spell disaster for many of Hawaii’s important and endemic species that have been severely depleted by overharvesting for aquariums.

For example, the heavily targeted, high-market value Achilles tangs and flame wrasses have populations of fewer than 6,000 each on Oahu and could be wiped out in under a year. Ironically, this is the irreparable damage that would be prevented with proper HEPA review, as the court ordered.

The public has long opposed the trade and doesn’t see collectors as “fishers” but as exploiters in an ornamental wildlife pet trade that threatens cultural and subsistence food fishers and decimates herbivores, the algae-eating species that are essential to the health and survival of Hawaii’s reefs.

The state isn’t fighting for food fishers. They have been asking fishers to limit herbivore take, while allowing aquarium collectors to take huge numbers. Before the court completely closed aquarium collecting in West Hawaii in 2017, the aquarium trade was responsible for 27% of the reef fish biomass taken from West Hawaii reefs, and most of those fish were herbivores.

New research shows the aquarium trade on Oahu has depleted heavily targeted herbivores, such as yellow tangs and other surgeonfish populations by an astonishing 90%.

The state has already spent more than $160,000 in taxpayer dollars defending the aquarium trade in court, with benefits going to out-of-state profiteers, those recently charged and convicted of poaching, and those currently under investigation. The ongoing court battles, including the state’s violation of the Nov. 27 court order, will likely drive taxpayer expenses even higher.

Allowing ongoing illegal collection further complicates enforcement efforts already hampered by the trade’s inherent secretive nature, as well as by perpetual inadequate funding of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), with more cuts expected. For example, the five poachers charged with illegal aquarium take in 2020 had been reported to DOCARE (DLNR’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement) for years by concerned community members. Action was only taken thanks to the expertise, guidance and additional resources of the federal NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement.

It’s time for the state to stop creating loopholes that sidestep court rulings and threaten Hawaii’s fragile reef ecosystems. These places and their creatures belong to all of Hawaii’s people, not just a few dozen who are beholden to special interests outside the state.

This was submitted for Kapu AQ Hui by Kaimi Kaupiko on behalf of Kalanihale, Moana Ohana and Kai Palaoa; Maxx Phillips on behalf of Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Council for Hawaii, and Friends of Hanauma Bay; and Rene Umberger on behalf of For the Fishes, Sierra Club Hawaii Island Group, and Haereticus Environmental Laboratory. Other Kapu AQ Hui members are Ocean Defenders Alliance, Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition, and Legacy Reef Foundation.