Report Title:

Federal Fisheries Regulation

 

Description:

Clarifies that the Department of Land and Natural Resources shall adopt, amend, or repeal administrative rules to be consistent with federal fishery regulations to improve management and enforcement in a state and federal marine water fishery, under certain conditions.  (HB3174 HD1)

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

3174

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

RELATING TO FEDERAL FISHERIES REGULATIONS.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Chapter 187A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§187A-    Consistency of state and federal fisheries regulations.  (a)  The department shall adopt, amend, and repeal administrative rules that are equivalent to and consistent with federal fisheries regulations, for the beneficial joint management of fisheries that occur in both state and federal marine waters to create uniform, complementary, and comprehensive management measures to improve efficiencies in management and effectiveness of enforcement, under the following conditions:

     (1)  A federal agency with the responsibility for the management of fisheries in federal marine waters around the Hawaiian Islands has:

         (A)  Declared a fishery to be in a state of overfishing, is overfished, or in some other state of unsustainability; and

         (B)  Promulgated or amended federal regulations to correct the decline in the fishery;

         and

     (2)  The fishery occurs in both state and federal marine waters.

     (b)  The board may annually declare a fishing season, a total fishing quota, or individual fishing quotas, or enact the requirements for other mechanisms to prevent overfishing that are consistent with federal fisheries regulations and similar state rules adopted under the conditions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (a).

     (c)  When the federal fisheries agency again declares the fishery to be sustainable and amends or repeals its regulations, the department shall amend or repeal its rules accordingly.

     (d)  Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person from exercising native Hawaiian gathering rights or traditional cultural practices as authorized by law or as permitted by the department pursuant to article XII, section 7, of the Hawaii Constitution;

     (e)  No rule adopted pursuant to this section shall be exempt from the requirements of chapter 91.

     (f)  As used in this section, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

     "Declared" or "declares" means when a federal agency with the responsibility for the management of fisheries in federal marine waters around the Hawaiian Islands has made a public announcement of a determination that the same fishery in state marine waters is in a state of overfishing, is overfished, or in some other state of unsustainability, pursuant to the provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (P.L. 94-265), as amended by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-479).

     "Federal fisheries regulations" means those formal federal laws relating to the management of marine fisheries by federal agencies, such as the National Marine Fisheries Service, United States Department of Commerce.

     "Federal marine waters" means the exclusive economic zone established by Presidential Proclamation 5030, 3 Code of Federal Regulations 22, dated March 10, 1983, and is that area adjacent to the United States which, except where modified to accommodate international boundaries, encompasses all waters from a baseline starting at the seaward boundary of state territorial seas extending seaward two hundred nautical miles.

     "Fishery" or "fisheries" means one or more stocks of marine resources other than marine mammals and birds that can be treated as a unit for purposes of conservation and management and that are identified on the basis of geographical, scientific, technical, recreational, and economic characteristics; and any fishing for such stocks.

     "Overfishing" or "overfished" means a rate or level of fishing mortality that jeopardizes the capacity of a fishery to produce the maximum sustainable yield on a continuing basis."

     SECTION 2.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.