save the mantas

Update from Tim Clark
The manta bill (HB366) is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday in the Senate Water, Land, and Ocean committee (WLO). There has been one amendment added to the bill by the House that would allow collection of manta rays for “for scientific, educational, management, or propagation purposes”. Wording of the amendment can be found at:
www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/HRS0187A/HRS_0187A-0006.htm

Testimony for the bill is due by the afternoon of March 17th. If you would like to send in testimony, you can either send it in to Manta Pacific Research Foundation at testimony@mantapacific.org and we will submit it for you in each of the hearings, or you can send it in yourself at:

www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony/

Feel free to send MPRF new testimony if you want to comment on the additional amendment.

Mahalo to everyone for your tremendous support and effort in getting the bill to this point. If the bill passes WLO, it heads to the Senate Judiciary and Government Operations committee (JGO). If it passes JGO then it will be voted on by the full House and Senate before (hopefully) becoming a new law!

Aloha,

Tim

Tim Clark
Zoology Department
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96822

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Manta Network. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.