HONOLULU (Aug 29, 2026) — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) applauds today’s decision by the Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to send proposed rules that would have reopened portions of the West Hawaiʻi coastline to commercial aquarium collection back to the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) for further legal, technical and cultural review.
The proposed rules did not advance, and commercial aquarium collection was not reopened through Agenda Item F-1.
“Reef fish — our iʻa — are not simply commodities. They are an integral part of Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices, our relationship with ʻāina and kai, and the health and abundance of the ecosystems that have sustained our people for generations,” said OHA Board of Trustees Chairperson Kaialiʻi Kahele. “BLNR’s decision recognizes that protecting these resources must take precedence over removing Hawaiʻi’s reef wildlife for ornamental display. It supports the work being done by communities across our pae ʻāina to perpetuate traditional practices, strengthen food security and ensure healthy, resilient nearshore ecosystems for generations to come.”
The decision follows years of advocacy by Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, community leaders, lineal descendants and stewardship organizations seeking stronger protections for Hawaiʻi’s reef ecosystems and the natural and cultural resources that sustain Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices.
OHA has consistently supported efforts to end the commercial collection of reef fish for ornamental purposes. During the 2026 legislative session, the OHA Board of Trustees approved an OHA legislative proposal seeking to prohibit commercial aquarium collection statewide. The measure advanced through much of the legislative process but ultimately did not receive a final hearing, in part as lawmakers awaited the outcome of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ concurrent BLNR rulemaking process.
Today’s BLNR decision came after hours of public testimony, much of it opposing the proposed rule package. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and community members testified about their ancestral and ongoing relationships with Hawaiʻi’s nearshore resources and raised concerns that commercial extraction of reef fish for ornamental display conflicts with traditional stewardship practices and community efforts to restore and protect marine ecosystems.
Commercial aquarium collection has been legally regulated in Hawaiʻi since the territorial era. Concerns about the ecological and cultural impacts of removing reef fish for the aquarium trade grew significantly during the latter decades of the 20th century, particularly as commercial collection activity became increasingly concentrated along the West Hawaiʻi coastline.
In 1998, the Hawaiʻi Legislature enacted Act 306, establishing the West Hawaiʻi Regional Fishery Management Area and beginning a series of regulatory efforts intended to address conflicts surrounding aquarium collection and protect nearshore resources.
Despite subsequent regulations and monitoring, Native Hawaiian practitioners and community stewardship organizations have continued to maintain that commercial extraction of reef fish for ornamental display is fundamentally inconsistent with ʻike Hawaiʻi, traditional and customary practices, and community-based efforts to restore abundance to Hawaiʻi’s nearshore ecosystems.
Those concerns have prompted years of litigation, legislative proposals and administrative rulemaking, while communities throughout West Hawaiʻi have invested substantial time and resources into habitat restoration, coral reef restoration, invasive species management, community monitoring, education and ʻāina-based stewardship.
In testimony submitted to BLNR, the Kai Kuleana Network, representing community members, cultural practitioners and lineal descendants from Kohala, Kona and Kaʻū, described that work as rooted in an obligation to care for the places and resources that have sustained generations of families.
“At each of our communities we honor and care for the spaces that once cared for our kūpuna,” the network testified. “We practice discipline and protocols of a kinship nature, we take care of our ‘icebox’ that feeds our ʻohana and with fierce aloha we protect the ability of our resources to ensure it can replenish and continue to feed our communities.”
Today’s action does not end OHA’s advocacy on the issue. OHA will continue working with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, community organizations, policymakers and resource managers to pursue durable protections for Hawaiʻi’s reef fish and nearshore ecosystems and to ensure Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and practices remain central to decisions affecting these resources.
