Havent seen a yellow tang at LFS in some time. $500 is pure greed and they can have it as a store mascot.
There is many mention of Hawaii Ban. There is no ban. . . . . . .
In the ongoing legal battle over Hawaii’s marine aquarium fishery, PIJAC, and the Hawaiian aquarium fishermen that it represents, have submitted their latest Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) covering the West Hawaii aquarium fishery. Framed as a Revised Final Environmental Impact Statement (RFEIS), the 1,585-page pdf document dated May 26, 2021, and published June 8th, is
available for download.
The document’s Executive Summary (included below) offers a complete timeline of the legal challenges that the aquarium fishery has faced and outlines the fishery’s latest proposal to reopen.
A Revised Aquarium Fishery
Should their latest proposal be accepted and approved, only the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area would reopen as a result. Just seven collection permits would be available, and only eight species of reef fish could be collected for the aquarium trade. These eight species were selected based on the following criteria:
- No statistically significant population declines in Open Areas between 1999/2000 and 2017/2018 (WHAP data from DAR 2019a)
- Recent catch (2017 fiscal year) of at least 100 fish (representing at least 0.03% of the total aquarium catch)
- Open Area population density of at least 0.5 fish/100m2 (data from DAR 2019a)
A ninth species, Fisher’s Angelfish (
Centropyge fisheri) also met these criteria, but was not proposed given its existing administrative status as a species of “special concern”.
In addition to the highly restricted list of approved species, catch quotas for all 8 species are proposed, spreading the total catch out equally among 7 permit holders. This creates a maximum allowable annual catch for the 8 proposed species:
- Yellow Tang, Zebrasoma flavescens – 28,571 per fisher/200,000 total
- Potter’s Angelfish, Centropyge potteri – 625/4376
- Kole Tang, Ctenochaetus strigosus – 4,285/30,000
- Cheveron Tang, Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis – 450/3152
- Bird Wrasse, Gomphosus varius – 49/344
- Naso Tang, Naso lituratus – 838/5872
- Brown Surgeonfish, Acanthurus nigrofuscus – 114/800
- Thompson’s Surgeonfish, Acanthurus thompsoni – 288/2016
What’s next?
At this point, the EIS is back in the hands of Hawaii’s Bureau of Land Management for reconsideration. The possible outcomes range from acceptance to outright rejection of the proposal and the continued ban of any aquarium fishing in West Hawaii.
