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program. Ah, the next one is an ocean stewardship user fee, so this administrative rule was
<br />approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources just this past Friday but it’s not in effect
<br />yet – it’s not official yet until it, we acquire the Governor’s approval and signature, then it needs
<br />to be filed by the Lt. Governor’s Office and then 10 days after that it goes into effect. So this
<br />administrative rule requires a $1.00 collection fee by operators of commercial vessels, water
<br />craft or any water sports equipment, and, people that have a commercial operator permit or
<br />commercial use permit and this fee is gonna be required from each passenger or customer
<br />served and the revenues from this fee is going to be entering a DAR special fund and the special
<br />funds are gonna be mainly used to maintain day-use moorings and expansion of the day-use
<br />moorings around the state, also to support community stewardship,and grants and out-reach
<br />activities, also coral reef restoration projects that DAR has and also to hopefully establish some
<br />coastal water quality monitoring programs. And, of course, as I mentioned – education and out-
<br />reach activities. Ah, the next one is kind of a big one, it’s kinda of, well, it was in the media and,
<br />kind of buzzing through the community the past few years, but this one is the statewide size and
<br />bag limits amendments and also new rules for \[unclear\] fish. So, again, this one was approved by
<br />the Land Board this past Friday, again, it needs to get Governor’s approval and signature, but
<br />this rule basically will increase the minimum size for Manini from 5 inches to 6 inches, it’s gonna
<br />establish a new minimum length for Kole of 5 inches, so it’s currently we don’t have any
<br />minimum size for Kole or bag limits, it’s also gonna establish a new non-commercial bag limit of
<br />four Kala per person per day and it also establishes new restrictions on the commercial harvest
<br />and sale of Kala. This is gonna include commercial fishers need to obtain a $100 annual
<br />Commercial Kala Fishing Permit, it’s also gonna set a commercial annual catch limit of ACL for
<br />Kala of 50,000 pounds per year. And requires commercial Kala dealers who sell Kala to register
<br />with DLNR as commercial Kala dealers. It also increases the minimum length for large bodied
<br />Uhu species, from 12 to 14 inches – so that’s like the Red Lip and the Spectacled Uhu. It
<br />establishes a minimum length of 10 inches for all other Uhu species – the smaller bodied
<br />species. It also establishes a new non-commercial bag limit of 2 Uhu per person per day – so this
<br />is similar to the Maui rules that are in effect. It also establishes restrictions on the commercial
<br />harvest and sale of Uhu, including another commercial Uhu, I mean, another $100 annual
<br />commercial permit specifically for Uhu, just like the Kala. And it prohibits the commercial
<br />harvest of any Uhu species other than Uhu Palukoloka and Uhu Ele Ele – that’s the Red Lip
<br />species. And it also sets a commercial annual catch limit of 30,000 pounds per year and again it
<br />requires commercial breeding dealers who sell Uhu to register with DLNR as a commercial Uhu
<br />dealer. Ah, this rule also extends the current close season of May through August for Papai
<br />Koaloha – that’s the Kona Crab – so it’s gonna be extended to May to September now, but it
<br />also now allows the take of the female Kona Crab, which is currently restricted, but it’s gonna
<br />open up take of females. OK, so that was it for administrative rules. Ah so I’m gonna be shifting
<br />over to some ecological monitoring and sampling that our East Hawaii office does. So the first
<br />one is an Estuaries Cast Net sampling project that we’ve been doing for over 10 years now and
<br />this is actually funded through the Dingle-Johnson Sportfish Restoration Program – so this is
<br />kinda like aquatic or fishing counterpart to the Pittman-Robinson funds, so this project, um,
<br />we’re aiming to investigate the functional role of Hawaiian estuaries as they function as habitat
<br />for juvenile sport fish, also to investigate species composition, recruitment patterns when the
<br />juveniles and larvae come in to the estuary and also seasonal patterns across the years. We have
<br />12 monitoring sites across 4 islands: Hawaii Island, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. We have three sites
<br />on this Island in Hilo Bay, Kiholo and Pelekane. So we basically use a cast net, we target fish,
<br />count, measure, ID, and release everything, ah, we also take water quality measurements while
<br />we’re doing this so we get a better idea of how to characterize these habitats. So far, we’ve
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