Honolulu City Council Aquarium Collection Resolutions Move Forward!
UPDATE JULY 17, 2026
Thanks to overwhelming public support, Resolutions 26-159 and 26-160 were passed unamended by the Zoning and Planning Committee this past Thursday, July 16.
These resolutions urge the Board of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaiʻi Legislature to take action to ban commercial aquarium collection in Hawaiʻi's waters. If adopted by the full Council, they would make clear that all county councils in Hawaiʻi support a permanent ban on commercial aquarium fish collection - an industry that was shut down by court rulings in 2017 and 2021, but that is poised to be reopened under administrative rules being pushed forward by the state Division of Aquatic Resources.
Mahalo nui to the introducers of these resolutions, Council Chair Tommy Waters and Zoning and Planning Committee Chair Esther Kiaʻāina; Zoning and Planning Committee members Val Okimoto, Radiant Cordero, and Matt Weyer, and the many, many individuals and groups who took the time to submit their testimony in support.
Please stay tuned as we await the City Council's final vote on these resolutions, and for a possible Board of Land and Natural Resources decision on the aquarium collection rules in the coming months."
UPDATE JULY 13, 2026
Last week, with overwhelming public support, the Kauaʻi County Council adopted Resolution 2026-21, to urge the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and the Hawaiʻi Legislature to keep the commercial aquarium collection industry out of Hawaiʻi’s waters.
Now, the Honolulu City Council will consider two resolutions to do the same - and your testimony is needed to ensure their passage! (See below for sample testimony and testimony instructions).
Proposed Honolulu City Council Resolutions 26-159 and 26-160would urge the BLNR and Hawaiʻi Legislature, respectively, to prohibit commercial aquarium collection throughout our islands. If adopted, these resolutions would make clear that every county in Hawaiʻi stands against the reopening of our waters to the profit-driven aquarium collection industry, as is being considered in draft rules put forward by the BLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources.
Please take a moment to submit written testimony, and consider offering verbal testimony, in SUPPORT of these resolutions to the Honolulu City Council Zoning and Planning Committee, which will meet this Thursday, July 16, at 9 a.m., in Council Chambers. With your help, we can protect 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.
Testimony instructions:
Written Testimony:
Use the drop-down menu to select “*ZONING AND PLANNING (ZON) Meeting (Jul 16, 2026)” and click “Select”;
Select RES26-159 (urging the BLNR to ban commercial aquarium collection) (you will have to submit testimony separately for each resolution);
Click “Support,” enter your information, and select “Written Testimony” or “Written and Oral Testimony” (if you’d like to testify verbally) where it says “I would like to provide”;
Enter your written testimony and click “Submit”;
Repeat the steps above, but select RES26-160 (urging the Legislature to ban commercial aquarium collection);
Ask your friends to do the same!
Verbal Testimony:
Testify in-person to the Zoning and Planning Committee at Honolulu City Council Chambers, 530 S. King Street, Room 202, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, 96813, on Thursday, July 16 (committee meeting begins at 9:00 a.m. - be sure to sign up to testify on the in-person signup sheet),
Testify virtually by registering to testify verbally using the https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/testimony link and instructions above (select “Written and Oral Testimony” where it says “I would like to provide”).
Sample Testimony (can be submitted for both resolutions):
Aloha Chair Kiaʻāina, Vice Chair Waters, and Members of the Honolulu City Council Zoning and Planning Committee,
My name is [your name] and I stand in STRONG SUPPORT of Resolutions 26-159 and 26-160, urging the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and Hawaiʻi State Legislature, respectively, to ban commercial aquarium collection in all Hawaiʻi waters.
These resolutions are both critical and timely. The BLNR is currently poised to pass rules that would immediately reopen the waters of West Hawaiʻi Island to commercial aquarium collection for the first time in nearly a decade, and establish a process to do the same throughout the islands - including Oʻahu. If adopted, these resolutions would make clear that the Honolulu City Council does not agree with this industry-driven rule proposal, and believes that the BLNR and the Hawaiʻi State Legislature should instead put an end to this inappropriate and harmful practice, once and for all.
As noted in these resolutions, 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.
Not surprisingly, the Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, and Maui County Councils; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; ʻAha Moku Advisory Committee; Kāneʻohe Bay Regional Council; neighborhood boards of Waimānalo, Kahaluʻu, Kāneʻohe, and Kailua; 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 supported a statewide ban on commercial aquarium collection.
With these resolutions, the Honolulu City Council can join the chorus of voices calling for a permanent end to commercial aquarium collection in Hawaiʻi’s waters, and make a powerful and timely statement in support of the public trust, and for the coral reefs, culture, resilience, and local economies of our islands.
Please SUPPORT Resolutions 26-159 and 26-160. Mahalo nui for your consideration of this testimony.
UPDATE JULY 8, 2026
Mahalo nui to the many, many individuals and groups who testified in support of Resolution No. 2026-21, in its consideration before the Kauaʻi County Council today. Thanks to overwhelming public support, the resolution was ADOPTED by a unanimous vote of all Council members.
This resolution is a powerful and timely affirmation of the Council’s longstanding call to protect Hawaiʻi’s waters from the commercial aquarium industry. With its adoption, the Kauaʻi County Council has added its voice to the chorus of other government entities, organizations, and individuals urging the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to reject a Division of Aquatic Resources rule proposal to reopen Hawaiʻi’s waters to commercial aquarium collection - and to instead adopt rules that would ban this profit-driven, wasteful, and culturally unacceptable industry from the islands, once and for all.
Should the BLNR decline to do so, Resolution No. 2026-21 also urges the Legislature to act on its policy-making prerogative, and pass a law that would do the same.
Special thanks to Councilmember Holland for introducing this resolution, to Council Chair Rapoza and Vice Chair Kualiʻi for scheduling it for the Council’s consideration today, and to the entire Council, including Councilmembers Bulosan, Carvalho, Cowden, and Kaneshiro, for their votes in support of its adoption.
Stay tuned, as more testimony will be needed in the weeks and months ahead in the campaign to put a permanent end to the commercial aquarium collection industry in Hawaiʻi, including on similar resolutions that may be considered by the other counties, and to the BLNR itself.
If you have not done so already, be sure to sign up for action alerts on this and other issues by subject matter area here (select “Oceans” for aquarium collection and other ocean-related topics) - and ask your friends to do the same!
UPDATE JULY 6, 2026
Hawaiʻi's coral reefs are already in bad shape, from climate impacts, to stream diversions and land-based pollution, to a longstanding lack of adequate fisheries management. Now, the state is about to make things even worse, by reopening our ocean waters to the commercial aquarium industry for the first time in nearly a decade. Help stop this from happening, by testifying in SUPPORT of Kauaʻi’s proposed Resolution No. 2026-21 for the Kauaʻi County Council’s July 8 meeting! Sample testimony and testimony instructions below.
Resolution No. 2026-21 urges both the Board of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaiʻi State Legislature to ban commercial aquarium collection in all Hawaiʻi waters. As many have recognized, doing so would help protect 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.
Not surprisingly, the vast majority (84%) of Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island residents, alongside the Kauaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi County Councils, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, ʻAha Moku Advisory Committee, Kāneʻohe Bay Regional Council, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, and many, many other groups alongside thousands of individuals from across the islands all have supported a statewide ban on commercial aquarium collection.
Help the Kauaʻi County Council reiterate their longstanding support of a ban on commercial aquarium collection by submitting testimony in favor of Resolution No. 2026-21, and asking your friends to do the same!
Testimony instructions:
Verbal Testimony: Testify verbally at Kauaʻi County Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Līhuʻe, Kauaʻi, 96766, on Wednesday, July 8 (council meeting begins at 8:30 a.m.)
Written Testimony: Submit written testimony by Tuesday, July 7, via e-mail at counciltestimony@kauai.gov.
Sample Testimony:
Aloha Chair Rapozo, Vice Chair Kualiʻi, and Members of the Kauaʻi County Council,
My name is [your name] and I stand in STRONG SUPPORT of Resolution 2026-21, urging the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and Hawaiʻi State Legislature to ban commercial aquarium collection in all Hawaiʻi waters.
I applaud the Kauaʻi County Council for taking action in the past, to protect our reefs from the aquarium industry by calling for a Hawaiʻi-wide ban on commercial aquarium collection. With the BLNR now poised to pass rules that would immediately reopen the waters of West Hawaiʻi Island to commercial aquarium collection, while establishing a process to do the same throughout the islands, I urge you to take action once again.
The commercial aquarium collection prohibition called for in Resolution 2026-21 is necessary to protect 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.
Not surprisingly, the Kauaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi County Councils, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, ʻAha Moku Advisory Committee, Kāneʻohe Bay Regional Council, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, 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 supported a statewide ban on commercial aquarium collection.
The Kauaʻi County Council’s reaffirmation of your long-held position against commercial aquarium collection would be a powerful and timely statement of support of the public trust, and for the coral reefs, culture, resilience, and local economies of our islands.
Please SUPPORT Resolution No. 2026-21. Mahalo nui for your consideration of this testimony.
Previous alerts:
There are TWO critical opportunities this week to protect Hawaiʻi’s reefs from the aquarium trade—please take a moment to act now!
At the same time that the state is advancing rules that could reopen West Hawaiʻi reefs to large-scale aquarium fish collection, the legislature is considering a bill that could stop the aquarium collection industry once and for all. Together, these proposals will determine whether Hawaiʻi continues to protect its reefs from the ornamental aquarium trade — or allows the aquarium collection industry to return.
Before aquarium collection was halted in 2017, millions of reef fish were removed from West Hawaiʻi for the global aquarium trade—fish that are essential to healthy reefs, shoreline protection, cultural practices, and local food systems. Today, our reefs are already under pressure from global warming, ocean acidification, and other impacts. Reopening the aquarium fishery would put them at even greater risk, for the benefit of a defunct industry and at the expense of the public.
In 2023, the Board of Land and Natural Resources supported a community proposal to ban aquarium collection statewide. However, last year, the Land Board approved holding public hearings for Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR)-proposed rules that would instead re-establish commercial aquarium collection in West Hawaiʻi, and provide a framework to do the same in the rest of Hawaiʻi’s nearshore waters. Public hearings for these rules will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Meanwhile, a bill in the Hawaiʻi legislature has the potential to put an end to commercial aquarium collection in Hawaiʻi’s once and for all. This bill originally would have prohibited commercial aquarium collection throughout our islands, but has since been amended to only prohibit aquarium collection on Oʻahu, and only until the Division of Aquatic Resources’ Holomua Initiative has completed its rulemaking proceedings. This measure is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday.
Plan to testify in opposition to DAR’s proposed rules on Tuesday or Wednesday and submit written testimony on the legislature’s proposed bill in support of critical amendments to ban commercial aquarium collection statewide. Details and sample testimony below.
Act Now: DAR Proposed Rules
Testify by Zoom (pae ʻāina-wide)
Tuesday, March 31
5:30-8:30pm
Register here
Attend in person (Hawaiʻi Island)
Wednesday, April 1
Kealakehe High School Cafeteria, 74-5000 Puohulihuli Street, Kailua-Kona
4:30-8:30pm
Talking points (courtesy of aole-aq.org):
Reef fish belong on the reef — not in aquariums.
Millions of reef fish were already taken from West Hawaiʻi reefs for the aquarium trade.
Reef fish help keep coral reefs healthy.
Our reefs are already under pressure from climate change and other impacts.
Hawaiʻi’s reefs are too important and too vulnerable to risk reopening a fishery targeting critically needed species, like lauʻīpala (yellow tang) and other herbivores.
Submit written testimony (pae ʻāina-wide)
By Sunday, April 12
Email to: DAR.Testimony@hawaii.gov
Subject line: Testimony in opposition to proposed aquarium collection rules
Sample testimony (feel free to add your own experiences and perspectives!):
To Whom it May Concern,
My name is ___ and I live in ___. I respectfully urge you to reject the proposed aquarium fish collection rules.
These rules go against the Land Board’s previous direction to prohibit commercial aquarium collection to the greatest extent possible, and would instead allow the aquarium industry to return to West Hawaiʻi reefs.
Reef fish—especially herbivores—are essential to healthy coral reefs, which protect our shorelines, support local food systems, and sustain cultural and subsistence practices. Reopening this fishery will risk further harm to already stressed reef ecosystems and prioritizes immense private profit at the expense of our shared public trust resources.
Please stand with the community and uphold your constitutional obligation to protect Hawaiʻi’s fragile reefs and the public interests that they support. Do not move forward with these rules.
Mahalo for your consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Act Now: HB2101 HD1 SD1
Previous versions of HB2101 HD1 SD1 would have stopped the ecologically and culturally harmful commercial aquarium industry from being reopened on Hawaiʻi Island, after having been shut down since 2017. Although it now only prohibits commercial aquarium collection on Oʻahu, with amendments, this bill could once again make clear that our reefs should not be exploited for the profit-driven aquarium trade. This measure is being heard on Thursday, April 2, at 9:20am in Capitol room 229, before the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary Committees (watch online here).
Sample testimony for HB2101 HD1 SD1
Aloha Chair Keohokālole, Chair Rhoads, Vice Chair Fukunaga, Vice Chair Gabbard, and members of the Committees,
My name is [your name], and I SUPPORT HB2101 HD1 SD1 WITH AMENDMENTS to reinstate the original statewide ban on commercial aquarium collection.
After years of controversy and concern, including from Native Hawaiian subsistence fishing communities, the aquarium collection industry was shut down by court order in 2017 and has remained closed for nearly a decade. However, the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) is poised to reopen West Hawaiʻi’s waters through proposed rules it claims are required under current law. This bill is a critical opportunity to make clear in statute that Hawaiʻi’s waters should not be reopened to the ornamental aquarium trade, in West Hawaiʻi or anywhere else across our island chain.
While I appreciate the intent of the current draft, limiting a commercial aquarium collection ban to Oʻahu—and only temporarily—falls short of the protections our reefs and communities need. The imminent reopening of West Hawaiʻi’s waters to aquarium collection in particular calls for the legislature to expand the current prohibitions of this measure beyond Oʻahu, to apply permanently to all waters of Hawaiʻi.
Reef fish, especially herbivorous species targeted by collectors, are essential to healthy coral reefs that protect our shorelines, support food systems, and sustain cultural and subsistence practices. When the industry was active, the removal of hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of reef fish each year had disproportionate impacts on reef health, particularly in West Hawaiʻi. This in turn undermined ecological balance, cultural practices, food systems, and myriad other public interests in our aquatic public trust resources.
With our reefs - and coral reefs worldwide - growing ever more vulnerable to irreversible collapse, we should not be inviting back an industry with such a history of harm, and that could further stress our reef ecosystems beyond the point of no return.
Communities across Hawaiʻi have consistently called for stronger, lasting protections of our nearshore waters—not a return of harmful industries like the aquarium trade. It is far past time for the legislature to finally reflect the will of the majority of concerned constituents, and to put an end to the commercial aquarium collection industry in Hawaiʻi, once and for all.
Accordingly, I respectfully urge the Committees to strengthen this bill by reinstating a statewide, permanent ban on commercial aquarium collection.
Mahalo for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven't yet (you'll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter “HB2101” where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information, select “SUPPORT” where it says "Enter Bill or Measure," write or copy/paste your testimony. No verbal testimony will be accepted.
Spread the word!