ACTION ALERT— Save Native Species, Stop Invasive Pests!
This week we need your help to protect our native and endemic marine life, and defend Maui and Lānaʻi from a dangerous rollback of their interim coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) rules.
Please take a moment to take action today! More information, sample testimony, and testimony instructions below.
🐠Stop the Aquarium Collection Industry from Returning to Hawaiʻi
First, this Friday, the Land Board will consider a rule proposal to reopen the waters of West Hawaiʻi Island to commercial aquarium collection, and establish a process for the same to occur throughout Hawaiʻi (with Oʻahu being the next likely target for the industry).
These rules would allow hundreds of thousands of specimens of native and endemic (i.e. found nowhere else on the planet) marine life to be collected every year from our nearshore reefs.
Notably, commercial aquarium collection has not been permitted in Hawaiʻi’s waters for the better part of a decade, after two court orders conditionally halted generations of documented harm. The return of the aquarium industry as proposed under these rules is opposed by every single county council in Hawaiʻi, along with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and dozens of organizations and countless individuals across the islands (including 84% of Hawaiʻi Island and Oʻahu residents).
Nonetheless, industry advocates have convinced the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) to continue advancing these rules, despite tremendous opposition at every step in the rulemaking process.
Now, the Land Board is being asked to grant their final approval of DAR’s aquarium collection rules, and open the door for the gratuitous and destructive aquarium collection industry to return to Hawaiʻi.
Please take a moment to submit testimony in OPPOSITION to these rules, urge the Land Board to instead BAN commercial aquarium collection once and for all, and ask your friends and networks to do the same!
Aquarium Collection Rules Testimony Instructions
Written testimony
Email written testimony to blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov with Testimony: Agenda Item F-1 as the subject line.
Verbal testimony:
In-person: Testify in-person to the Land Board at the DLNR Boardroom, Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St., 1st Floor, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96813 - meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.
Virtual Testimony: Sign up to testify ahead of time (not necessary but recommended) by e-mailing blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov (1) your name or a pseudonym name, if you wish to remain anonymous; and (2) the agenda item you wish to testify on (F-1), and/or use this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87582464228.
Sample Testimony
Subject: Testimony: Agenda Item F-1 (Aquarium Collection Rules)
Aloha Chair Kanakaʻole and Members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources,
My name is [your name] and I am a resident of [your home-optional]. I urge you to DENY the staff recommendation for rule adoption as included in agenda item F-1, and to instead AMEND the proposed rules to prohibit commercial aquarium collection throughout Hawaiʻi’s waters, as the Board promised to do nearly three years ago.
In December of 2023, the Land Board voted to approve a community petition, submitted by numerous organizations and supported by dozens more, to ban commercial aquarium collection throughout Hawaiʻi.
Nonetheless, last year, the Land Board decided to move forward with a rule proposal to reopen our ocean to the commercial aquarium industry. Importantly, the legal claim that this move was somehow required by statute has since been refuted.
I therefore urge you to reject the rule proposal before you today, and to instead amend these rules to prohibit commercial aquarium collection throughout Hawaiʻi.
As noted in resolutions adopted by all four county councils, a commercial aquarium collection ban would protect our reef-critical herbivorous fish species, sustain local and cultural fishing practices, support aquatic biodiversity, and prevent the needless take of hundreds of thousands of native and endemic fish for purely ornamental purposes - the vast majority of which die within a short time after being harvested. With declining reefs and a rapidly destabilizing climate, the public trust and the precautionary principle all but require you to take such an action.
Not surprisingly, the ʻAha Moku Advisory Committee; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Kāneʻohe Bay Regional Council; neighborhood boards of Waimānalo, Kahaluʻu, Kāneʻohe, Kailua, and Maunalua (Hawaiʻi Kai); Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo; Koʻolau Foundation; Earthjustice; Center for Biological Diversity; Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi; Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi; and many, many other organizations alongside thousands of testifiers from across the islands all have also supported a Hawaiʻi-wide ban on commercial aquarium collection.
Please heed the call of countless organizations and individuals throughout our islands to uphold your public trust obligations by REJECTING the rules before you today, and to require rulemaking that would instead BAN commercial aquarium collection of our native and endemic reef species, once and for all.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
🛑🪲Last Chance: Defend Maui and Lānaʻi Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) Rules
Second, tomorrow, Tuesday, August 25, at 9 a.m., the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity (BAB) will consider a recommendation to roll back the Maui and Lānaʻi Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) rules adopted last month, to allow potted plants to be shipped to these islands from Hawaiʻi Island.
Importantly, all of Hawaiʻi Island remains at significant risk of CRB infestations - a risk that has been greatly heightened after the recent storms - and potted plants are a high-risk vector for the spread of CRB larvae and eggs, which cannot be reliably detected in potted plants.
This is a dangerous and untimely proposal that threatens the long-term cultural, ecological, agricultural, and economic well-being of these islands and their residents, to serve the short-term interests of a handful of nursery businesses on Hawaiʻi Island.
If you have not done so already, please take a moment to submit written testimony in OPPOSITION to this rollback and to help spread the word! Sample testimony and testimony instructions are below, and additional information/sample testimonies can also be found at this shareable link: tinyurl.com/sch-crb, and via the Sierra Club/Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund and Lahaina Community Land Trust Instagram posts here and here.
CRB Rule Rollback Testimony Instructions
Written testimony
Email written testimony to dab.board.testimony@hawaii.gov with Testimony: Agenda Item IV.C.1 as the subject line.
Verbal testimony:
In-person: Attend the BAB meeting and testify in-person at the Plant Quarantine Branch, 1849 Auiki Street, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96819 at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, August 25.
Virtual: Log into the meeting via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88631184288 and use the “raise hand” option when calls for public testimony are announced and use the “raise hand” option when calls for public testimony are announced.
Sample Testimony
To: DAB.BOARD.TESTIMONY@hawaii.gov
Subject: Testimony: Agenda Item IV.C.1 (Maui Lānaʻi Interim CRB Rules)
Aloha Chair Hurd and members of the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity,
My name is [your name] and I am a resident of [your home-optional]. I urge you to DENY the dangerous and untimely amendments to the interim Maui and Lānaʻi CRB rules. The proposed changes create a significant and unacceptable threat of additional CRB introductions to Maui and Lānaʻi, and the substantial and irreversible harms that may result.
The proposed rule amendment would allow for "inspected" potted plants from Hawaiʻi Island to be moved to Maui and Lānaʻi. As you know, potted plants are a significant vector for the spread of CRB eggs and larvae. Moreover, potted plants simply cannot be fully inspected for all life stages of CRB, without uprooting and damaging or harming the plants themselves - even if DAB had the staff capacity to fully "inspect" every potted plant that is shipped between the islands.
With all of Hawaiʻi Island under the continued and elevated risk of CRB infestations, especially after the recent storms, the rule amendment therefore creates a significant threat of CRB introductions to Maui and Lānaʻi notwithstanding its superficial assurances of DAB "inspection." This is unacceptable.
Please do not elevate a temporary inconvenience to Hawaiʻi Island nurseries over the long-term agricultural, cultural, ecological, and economic needs of Maui and Lānaʻi. Please do not pass this short-sighted, untimely, and dangerous rule proposal.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
[your name]