LIHU‘E — It is illegal in Hawai‘i to sell native Hawaiian freshwater fish and even introduced game species such as the rainbow trout. Hawai‘i’s marine fish, however, are not so lucky. They’re fair game. Hawai‘i’s official fish, the humuhumunukunukuapu-a‘a, collected
LIHU‘E — It is illegal in Hawai‘i to sell native Hawaiian freshwater fish and even introduced game species such as the rainbow trout. Hawai‘i’s marine fish, however, are not so lucky. They’re fair game.
Hawai‘i’s official fish, the humuhumunukunukuapu-a‘a, collected in coral reefs throughout the islands, can be found for sale by several online retailers, including Petco, Reef Hot Spot, Live Aquaria, Fresh Marine, Sea Life Direct and Saltwater Fish Shop. A Google search for “Hawaiian marine fish for sale” showed 1.83 million results.
Many in Hawai‘i are hoping for a change, and soon.
The Kaua‘i County Council in November passed a non-binding resolution urging the state Legislature to approve a statewide ban on the aquarium trade. In October, the Big Island’s lawmakers had passed a similar resolution. On Maui, two recent ordinances dealing with fish collecting practices related to animal cruelty made it difficult for divers to keep harvesting fish from the Valley Island’s coral reefs.
“We are a reef community and we, above all others, know that this wildlife does not belong in a tank. It belongs on the reef,” said Renee Umberger, director of the Maui-based nonprofit For the Fishes.
With the tightening of the laws on Maui, opponents of aquarium fish collecting are saying divers have been targeting other islands, including Kaua‘i, where a pair of rare masked angelfish sold for $30,000 in 2010.
The fish is found at depths of 250 to 300 feet. Right after the fish were sold, an O‘ahu man died on Kaua‘i from decompression sickness. The man had been diving for three days in a row looking for the masked angelfish, Snorkel Bob’s executive director, Robert Wintner, said.
Maui protest
Umberger, with the help of Wintner and the Pacific Whale Foundation, organized a protest Wednesday in front of Maui’s Kahului Petco store. Between 30 and 50 people showed up to hold signs asking the company to end sales of marine fish.
On the same day, Hawai‘i’s Petco marketing manager, Annette Groscup, announced on KHNL-TV that the company would stop selling Hawaiian marine fish.
Petco’s vice president of corporate communications, Kevin Whalen, said Thursday the company would take two weeks to gradually phase out sales of Hawaiian marine fish from the company’s five Hawai‘i stores. Petco has three stores on O‘ahu, one on Maui and one on the Big Island.
“Part of our commitment is to follow responsible sustainable practices in our supply chain, and that includes helping to protect the coral reefs and the marine species,” he said.
Whalen also said the decision to pull Hawaiian fish from the local stores was purely based on the market.
“We reviewed customer demand and feedback and decided to remove marine fish native to Hawai‘i, specifically yellow tangs and eye kole tangs, from our assortment on all five stores (in Hawai‘i),” Whalen said, adding that local retailers were selling Hawaiian fish at prices that Petco could not match.
“The decision to remove the Hawaiian marine fish from our assortment isn’t because we necessarily believe that responsible harvesting of the fish is harmful,” he said. “We believe responsible harvesting is an important trade, and some of these fish make wonderful aquatic pets for hobbyists.”
Petco still intends to offer a “different sort of marine fish” to its customers in Hawai‘i, Whalen said.
About the online sales of Hawaiian fish, however, he had no answer.
“What we are talking right now is just about Hawai‘i,” said Whalen, adding that most of the issue, as he understood, revolved around what Petco was offering in the local stores.
Meanwhile, the humu-humunukunukuapua‘a, yellow tangs and other local species sold online at Petco will never make it back to Hawai‘i. The company’s shipping restrictions do not allow shipping marine fish back to the islands.
Umberger said she “absolutely” believes the protest Wednesday contributed to the end of sales of Hawaiian marine fish at Petco’s Hawai‘i outlets. But she and Wintner want to go further.
“We want Petco to stop selling all marine life, period. Full stop,” Wintner said.
Another protest in front of the Maui Petco store is planned at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Umberger said.
On the reef
Marine biologist Don Heacock, from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Aquatic Division, said Hawai‘i has the highest percentage worldwide of endemic fish on its reefs. About 35 percent of the fish found in Hawai‘i waters are found nowhere else in the world.
People are just now realizing it is more valuable to keep the fish on the reef, because they are part of a highly complex, biodiverse tropical coral reef ecosystem, Heacock said.
“The scientific community knew this a long time ago. The economists took a little longer to catch up,” he said.
Fish watching is as big today as bird watching was 50 or 60 years ago, Heacock said, adding that visitors come to Hawai‘i with underwater notebooks to keep track of how many different tropical fish they see.
“We are realizing that for society as a whole it’s much better — more beneficial, more economical, more ecological — to leave those fish out on the reef, where they function and reproduce, and provide food and pick off parasites from turtles and all kinds of things,” Heacock said.
The fish are a part of a very complex ecosystem which “we probably never will completely understand,” he said.
Article 11 of the state constitution states that Hawai‘i and its county governements must protect and conserve all of Hawai‘i’s natural resources, Heacock said.
“In other words, the state constitution is making it very clear that the state and the counties need to work together as partners in protecting these public trust resources, not just for today, but for 100 years from now,” he said.
Heacock said he believes that everything that inhabits coral reefs close to shore should be for home use only.
“That’s the way Hawaiians managed those coral reef ecosystems 500 years ago. They only took what they needed,” Heacock said. “They only took it for home consumption, not to sell, not to ship to Los Angeles or Tokyo.”
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
