It’s never a pleasant affair to hear of yet another new law being proposed to shutter the aquarium hobby but today we really need action from all of you. A trio of laws being proposed in Hawaii will go into discussion tomorrow and they are the most arcane and specifically anti-aquarium laws we have ever seen.
Despite Hawaii being shown time and time again to be the most sustainable and highly scrutinized fishery in Hawaii, HB 606 proposes a ten year moratorium on taking of any aquarium fish in Hawaii – if enacted you could kiss yellow tangs goodbye until the mid 2020s. HB 873 Prohibits the sale of aquatic life for aquarium purposes use “taken from any of the waters within the jurisdiction of the State”.
As if these two highly damaging bills aren’t enough to sink the Hawaiian Aquarium Industry, yet another bill, HB 883 Mandates collection, shipping, and holding practices that would make it impossible to care for fish in a humane manner. We do our best to treat fish as good as possible but this bill is trying to undermine successful fish collecting and handling practices which would in no way truly make their “treatment” more humane.
We know this is short notice but comments speaking out against these proposed bills need to be submitted by 8:30am Hawaii time tomorrow, Tuesday February 10th and the submissions need to address only one bill at a time. So if you care about this hobby and haven’t been able to donate to PIJAC or help the cause in a while, please take some time to visit the PIJAC website and follow the instructions on how you can help push back against these draconian laws.
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