HI SCR75

Urges the President of the United States to deny any request to expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument beyond its current fifty-mile offshore boundary.

States that expansion to two hundred miles offshore would harm Hawaii's fisheries, including the bottomfish fishery with seventeen permits and indigenous native Hawaiian fishing communities.

Argues that expansion could result in an annual loss of $10,000,000 in landed value for Hawaii's long-line fishery and $30,000,000 loss to the State's retail seafood markets.

Claims that twenty-three percent of waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands are already designated as no-take marine protected areas, exceeding the twenty percent global standard, and expansion would increase this to sixty-seven percent.

States that existing county, state, and federal management regimes already provide comprehensive protections for marine ecosystems and that no scientific justification supports expansion.