Ban on West Hawaii aquarium fish collecting ends

An Oahu Circuit Court judge lifted an injunction Monday that effectively ends a five-year ban on aquarium fish collection in the waters of West Hawaii.

However, state officials cautioned that Judge Jeffrey P. Crabtree’s ruling doesn’t mean that fishing permits will be automatically given out to commercial collectors who apply.

“Today’s decision does not itself authorize any aquarium fishing,” said Melissa Goldman, deputy state attorney general, in a statement after the ruling. “That question may now be taken up by the (state Department of Land and Natural Resources), which is the agency charged with managing the state’s aquatic resources.”

A spokesperson for DLNR said that any applications will be considered by the agency’s board in a process expected to include public review and input. And then only a maximum of seven permits will be considered under guidelines established in the fishery’s revised final environmental impact statement.

An injunction blocking the issuance or renewal of aquarium fish permits in the rest of the state remains in effect.

Earthjustice attorney Mahesh Cleveland said his clients, a Maui group called For the Fishes, will ask Crabtree to reconsider his ruling and, if necessary, appeal to a higher court.

“We’re disappointed the court ruled against us,” he said. “But the battle isn’t over.”

In a statement, Cleveland added, “We plan to do everything we can in that process to avoid West Hawaii’s reefs from getting hammered by the trade once again.”

Earthjustice obtained the injunction after BLNR, in a split vote, accepted the revised final EIS for the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area in 2022. The opponents argued that the environmental documents were inadequate.

Crabtree amended a statewide injunction Monday after deciding the environmental review process for the West Hawaii management area was complete under the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act. The injunction remains in place for the rest of the state, including East Hawaii island and Oahu.

Goldman said the decision returns the management of the state’s aquatic resources in the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area back to the DLNR.

“Anyone who engages in commercial aquarium collection without the required permit in the West Hawai‘i management area or elsewhere in the state will be cited, and DLNR will pursue enforcement to the fullest extent authorized by law,” DLNR said Monday in a news release.

The revised EIS allows seven commercial fishers to operate in West Hawaii waters from Upolu Point in North Kohala to Ka Lae (South Point) in Kau. Species that are allowed to be taken under the plan are yellow tang, kole, orangespine unicornfish, potter’s angelfish, brown surgeonfish, Thompson’s surgeonfish, black surgeonfish and bird wrasse.

The court ruled in 2022 that the aquarium industry’s revised West Hawaii environmental impact statement — approved by default after the Land Board deadlocked in a 3-3 tie vote — satisfies the state’s environmental review law. That decision is now before the state appellate courts.

Meanwhile, the state Senate heard testimony Monday afternoon on Senate Bill 505, a proposed law banning commercial aquarium collection outright.

In testimony before the Committee on Agriculture and Environment, bill supporters said Hawaii’s reef fish will diminish substantially if commercial fishers are allowed to continue operating, while the opposition said there are plenty of fish to sustain an industry that is good for the state.

“Our reefs are dying,” said Ted Bohlen of the Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition. “They’re dying largely because of climate change. But we need to help them wherever we can. And one way to help them is by not taking fish, especially herbivores that help clean the reef, off the reef. So this bill is necessary in order to protect our reefs.”

Commercial fisher Jim Lovell told lawmakers that the West Hawaii aquarium fishery is strong enough to withstand seven fishers.

“The (fish) numbers are going up,” he said.