A recent Bill in Hawaii will limit the number of fish captured or caught on the Big Island.
Finally after years of wrangling through the system, a government has taken a stand. Hawaii moves to limit the number of fish to be captured or caught. The government acted a while ago to set up a sanctuary for fish along one third of the coastline of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. The boundaries have yet to be determined.
This bill was carried 7 to 0 by the Ocean Recreation and Marine research committee. However; it did reject an outright ban on the collection of tropical fish species in a sixty mile stretch from Kawaihae to Milolii. This Bill will face further deliberations before going to the Senate. The banned area would be from the shoreline outwards to where the waters reach a depth of 670 feet.
This law pitted the state’s $50 million tourist diving industry, which needs the fish to entertain the divers and snorkelers, against those in the $10 million tropical fish industry, which sends beautiful colored fish to shops across the country and the world.
So it does go to show that not all people in government just think for today, but think for the future too. If Hawaii looses their beautiful fish now, what are they going to show the divers and snorkelers down the road?
