The push to ban aquarium fishing in Hawaiʻi has advanced farther in the current legislative session than it has in years, clearing both the House and Senate, but it’s also been heavily watered down to get that far, conservation advocates say.

Now, it remains to be seen whether one of the session’s most hotly contested measures can survive the pivotal conference committee process that’s underway, as representatives from both chambers meet to try and hash out differences on a flurry of bills. 

For years, Earthjustice senior attorney Mahesh Cleveland said, state lawmakers and the Hawai‘i Division of Aquatic Resources have treated aquarium fishing “like a game of hot potato” — each deferring to the other on what to do about such strongly debated environmental, commercial and cultural issues.

“The bottom line is, the Legislature should make the change,” said Cleveland, whose environmental legal advocacy group has represented groups pushing for years to ban the practice. “That really provides a real clear directive to the agency as far as what to do.”

Neither the House nor the Senate has announced who will serve on the conference committee to take up House Bill 2101 affecting aquarium fishing’s future in the islands. The practice has fueled widespread community scorn, particularly on the Big Island, largely because fish such as yellow tang are taken from local reef ecosystems and sold abroad in the pet industry. 

But some local fishers have strongly lobbied for the collections to resume after court decisions halted them nearly a decade ago. State aquatic resource officials have also recommended for years that the trade resume, saying limited collections won’t harm existing populations.

Arguably the biggest detail for House and Senate members to resolve is where, exactly, the ban would take effect in Hawaiian waters. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs originally included the proposal in its legislative package this year, and it called for the ban to apply statewide.

House members in a 43-8 vote opted to go with an aquarium-collections ban on the Big Island, home to the Kona Coast that’s widely coveted by collectors. When the measure reached the Senate, the ban was changed to instead only apply to Oʻahu. 

Two Big Island senators, Lorraine Inouye and Tim Richards, expressed misgivings about creating a ban on the Big Island while the issue plays out in court and state aquatic resource officials set rules that would allow more than 200,000 aquarium fish to be collected from the reefs there.

“We have due process within our state,” Richards said Tuesday, “and if we don’t follow due process we’re not being fair to the constituency.”

Community members showed up en masse at a public hearing in Kona earlier this month to oppose the aquatic resource division’s proposed rules to restart aquarium fishing along that coast.

If an issue arises in the process that would stop the division from issuing those Big Island permits, Richards said, he would join other senators to introduce a new ban.

The Senate’s version of the bill, which passed last week in a 19-6 vote, also calls for the aquarium-fishing ban to be lifted once state aquatic officials complete new conservation rules for Oʻahu aimed to make fishing more sustainable there, under the state’s Holomua Marine Initiative. 

That conservation initiative was previously the Marine 30×30 initiative and initially looked to better manage at least 30% of Hawaiʻi’s nearshore waters by 2030. State natural resource leaders later rolled back the somewhat vague 30% goal amid heavy pressure from local fishers.

However, state officials indicated this week that the Holomua process on Oʻahu likely would not cover aquarium fishing.

Andrew Laurence, a spokesperson for the aquatic resources division, said in an email Wednesday that the agency would pursue initiatives based on whatever community members there deemed important and that did not necessarily include aquarium fishing. He further stated that including aquarium collection issue in Holomua would “duplicate efforts and create confusion” since the agency is already crafting rules separately.

Said Cleveland: “It’s very watered down and not even sure it’s a ban anymore. It’s like a temporary ban.”

“The way to make this bill work,” he added, “would be for the champions in the conference committees to bring the bill closer back to what it started out as, which was a straight-up prohibition on commercial collection.”

Conference committee meetings continue through May 1.

Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Hawaiʻi island is supported in part by a grant from the Dorrance Family Foundation; coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.