"A proposed aquarium fishing ban is in play as state aquatic resource officials move to revive the controversial fishing practice."

"Hawaiʻi island resident Kekoa Alip knows there are recent state reports showing at least some aquarium-trade fishing could resume off the Kona Coast without shrinking the region’s current numbers of prized reef fish.

But the 46-year-old, like others who grew up on the Kona Coast, also recalls that the lauʻīpala, or yellow tang, and other fish species sought by the pet trade used to be far more abundant along those shores than they are now — more than even during the nearly decade-long pause on aquarium-trade fishing there.

“You could see the waves roll with lauʻīpala,” said Alip, who used to live on a beach by the Hawaiʻi Ocean Sciences and Technology Park. “From childhood to my early adulthood, there were totally visual effects of the yellow tang in the reef.”

Aquarium-fish harvesting has long been one of Hawaiʻi’s most contested environmental issues. It currently isn’t happening legally anywhere in the state following years of legal battles and court rulings. But now it is approaching a new crossroads."

Marcel Honoré reports for Honolulu Civil Beat March 18, 2026. [2]