Hawai‘i Land Board Rejects Move To Reopen Commercial Aquarium Fish Collection

August 28, 2026

Hawai'i Land Board Rejects Move To Reopen Commercial Aquarium Fish Collection

Victory

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Decision marks a turning point in the long-running effort to protect Hawai'i's native reef fish from commercial capture and sale

Contacts

Mahesh Cleveland, [email protected], 808-599-2439
Elena Bryant, [email protected], 808-543-6025

Honolulu, HI -

The Hawai'i Board of Land and Natural Resources voted today to reject a proposal that would have resumed permits for commercial aquarium fish collection in West Hawai'i and potentially elsewhere in the state. The Board recognized legal issues with the proposal and directed the Department of Land and Natural Resources to instead reconsider alternatives to commercial collection, including whether commercial collection aligns with the state's constitutional public trust obligations and duty to protect Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices. An Environmental Court ruling earlier this year confirmed that the Board has statutory authority to enact a statewide prohibition on commercial aquarium collection through administrative rules, which carry the force of law.

"We mahalo the Board for recognizing that this industry is incompatible with our community values," said cultural practitioner Mike Nakachi. "Reef fish perform essential functions that keep Hawai'i's reefs resilient, and lawai'a pono teaches us to take only what we will eat-not capture and export reef wildlife as ornamental pets. By rejecting the proposal to resume commercial collection, the Board is taking steps to honor local and Hawaiian values and its duty to protect public trust resources."

"I applaud the Board for standing with Hawai'i's communities and rejecting a proposal rooted in the Territory-era fiction that reef fish taken for aquariums are neither food nor valuable," said longtime Hawaiian cultural advocate Charlie Young of Keālia. "Nearly all of these species are traditional food sources, and our constitution puts subsistence fishing, public trust resources, and the rights of future generations ahead of private commercial gain. Keeping these fish on the reef strengthens our food fisheries, sustains the ecosystem, and upholds Hawaiian values."

"This decision recognizes the will of Hawai'i's people," said Mahesh Cleveland, an attorney with Earthjustice's Mid-Pacific Office, which has represented Nakachi, Young, and other advocates in years of advocacy and litigation over commercial aquarium collection. "Again and again, communities have turned out at public meetings to oppose this trade. We hope the Department will return with rules that protect Hawai'i's reefs and marine life from the harms of an extractive, profit-driven industry."

Healthy reef fish populations are vital to ecosystems already strained by marine heat waves, pollution, and decades of commercial extraction. Although commercial collection has been halted statewide since 2021-and in West Hawai'i since 2017-the targeted species and reefs have not recovered.

Commercial collectors use fine-mesh nets to capture juvenile native fish, including species local communities rely on for food. The fish are bagged, shipped by air, and sold to pet stores worldwide. Evidence indicates that most wild-caught aquarium fish die within their first year in captivity; in the wild, some species-such as the yellow tang-can live for more than 40 years.

Following the Board's decision, the Division of Aquatic Resources will revisit the public rulemaking process, potentially including a new series of public hearings.

Background

In December 2023, the Board unanimously approved a community-led petition seeking rules to prohibit commercial aquarium collection. A deputy attorney general subsequently advised the Board that it lacked authority to adopt a ban through administrative rulemaking, prompting a 2025 lawsuit to clarify the Board's legal authority. In April 2026, the Environmental Court ruled that the Board had acted appropriately in 2023 and was authorized by statute to prohibit commercial aquarium collection by administrative rule.

Despite that ruling, the Department's Division of Aquatic Resources continued advancing rules that would reopen commercial aquarium collection rather than prohibit it. At public hearings in 2026, testimony overwhelmingly opposed reopening the trade and supported a statewide ban.

Lau'ipala (yellow tang fish) swim in a coral reef off the island of Lānaʻi, Hawaii. Reefs are essential to biodiversity, with 25% of all marine species found in, on, or near them. Healthy reefs also facilitate subsistence and commercial fishing, and they protect people from storm surges and floods, absorbing up to 97% of a shorebound wave's energy. Around a billion people benefit from reefs. (M Swiet Productions / Getty Images)

Additional Resources

• About the Mid-Pacific Office

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