Maui Ocean Center touts marine conservation, but nonprofit says it repeatedly violates fish-taking permits with high mortality rates

In 1998, the $20 million Maui Ocean Center, the only privately owned aquarium in Hawaiʻi, opened with a mission that continues to this day of conservation and stewardship of marine life.

Its current website, under the heading “Mālama (Stewardship),” says all animals under its care have been collected under a special permit with the state Division of Aquatic Resources.

But the nonprofit For the Fishes, which conducts courtesy reviews of fish-taking permits for the state, said it has found that the Maui Ocean Center has repeatedly violated these annual permits over the years, and that the state has allowed them to do so with minimal consequences.

For the Fishes Director Rene Umberger said the nonprofit’s compliance review of the ocean center’s 2022-23 special activity permit determined there were 91 instances of improper collection from the ocean, including 11 the state also identified. The collected wildlife also experienced a mortality rate of more than 50% within a year of capture, she said.

But instead of the Division of Aquatic Resources cracking down on the center — and addressing the 118 recommendations made by the nonprofit to deal with the collection issues — the state agency in June renewed the ocean center’s permit. And, it did so with more favorable conditions, Umberger said.

This year’s permit more than doubled the allowable fish collection to 1,381 — the largest permit of its kind in the state — after a one-year gap in renewal during 2023-24, which the Division of Aquatic Resources attributed to a backlog.

The permit also included a new “opportunistic collection” clause that allows Maui Ocean Center to collect non-regulated marine life without prior permission and seek approval afterward. These activities would otherwise be illegal, according to the Division of Aquatic Resources.

The Division of Aquatic Resources explained in a recent email that the permit needed to be more “realistic to the needs of a large public aquarium,” and that opportunistic collections empower Maui Ocean Center to build its life-like displays while still providing the agency with the ability to provide oversight.

But Inga Gibson, the former director of the Humane Society of the United States, says this relaxed regulation sets a “dangerous precedent” for other Hawaiʻi aquariums within the division’s jurisdiction.

Both Umberger and Gibson argue that opportunistic collections can be exploited as a loophole to bypass longstanding violations. And both have said the agency is “bending over backwards to give the Maui Ocean Center a pass.”

The aquarium and the state both say this isn’t the case, although they both agree there have been some issues with collecting marine animals over the years.

“As the state rules regarding ocean animal welfare evolve, sometimes drastically, we have been working directly with the DLNR and the Department of Aquatic Resources to improve communication, close gaps, and address missteps,” said Maui Ocean Center Marketing Director Mark Matthews.

He said with guidance from the ocean center’s cultural advisor, Dane Maxwell, a comprehensive plan has been enacted to address and improve its processes to ensure actions are culturally appropriate and sustainable, leading to the renewal of the aquarium’s special activity permit this year.

THE START: ALLEGATIONS OF A RUSHED OPENING

Umberger claims a pattern of the state letting Maui Ocean Center off the hook dates to the 1998 opening of the aquarium, which is owned by Israeli corporation Coral World International.

The Maui Ocean Center’s website says entrepreneur and philanthropist Morris Khan, who in the 1970s recognized that fragile marine ecosystems needed protection, partnered with renowned reef biologist David Fridman to create Coral World — which has evolved into an international operation with marine parks worldwide, including on Maui.

In a 2009 email, Bradley Tarr, a former curator at the Maui Ocean Center, wrote that the rush to open the aquarium resulted in significant mortality of the collected marine life.

“The MOC was in such a hurry to meet its opening date that the paint from the larger tanks barely had time to dry before organisms were placed in them,” he said in his email to Robin Newbold, a former colleague of Umberger who had asked for background on the damaged reefs closest to the aquarium.

Tarr’s email continues: “Many large coral colonies died initially and were discarded at the seawall of the (Mā’alaea) harbor; very depressing. The same fate for fishes; large trash cans full of fishes were put back on the Boston Whaler and dumped at sea. Clearly there was a toxicity issue causing the mass mortality.”

Tarr also said in that email he was concerned about the over-collecting of marine life, and was instructed to fabricate reports about those collections.

“As curator, I was responsible for documenting all collections, including date, location, type, method and quantity,” Tarr said. “Although the total collection of fishes and corals far exceeded the total amount allowed by the permit, ownership and upper management instructed me to revise the annual report to meet full compliance.”

In the email, Tarr attributed the aquarium’s over-collection to a “disrespect for the terms and conditions of the scientific collection permit issued by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.” He subsequently reported these infractions to the department and left the aquarium. Tarr did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Maui Ocean Center’s present-day general manager, Tapani Vuori, who came on board in 2002, said Thursday that he does not know if Tarr’s accounts are true, but if they are, the onus was on Tarr, not on him or the current leadership at Maui Ocean Center.

Matthews, who also joined Maui Ocean Center years after the alleged incidents, said it’s irrelevant to conflate them with Maui Ocean Center’s current practices.

“It sounds like if something happened, it was addressed and then it was repaired, and now we’re on the other side of that,” Matthews said in an interview Thursday.

Regardless, Tarr’s letter to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has shaped the aquarium’s collection permit for the past two decades by accelerating the terms and conditions put in place for future special activity permits for aquariums in Hawai’i.

In a Nov. 15 email to the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative, the Division of Aquatic Resources said as a result of that letter the Maui Ocean Center’s permits became “the most restrictive and required the most notification and oversight of any permit in the state.”

The division also says it has had to update and change aquarium permits over the years to find a balance that allows it to strictly oversee large educational aquarium facilities while providing enough flexibility to the aquariums to be able to function. The division says its philosophy on evaluating fish collections is to find the best outcome for the state and protect aquatic resources to a practical degree, as outlined in Hawai’i Revised Statues Chapter 343.

But Umberger said the division is bending over backward to enable the aquarium to be in compliance with the permits. She provided a separate email obtained via a public records request, in which the state suggested “revisions” be made to comply with the 2022-23 special activity permit. An April email from the Division of Aquatic Resources advised Maui Ocean Center curator Chris Keller to revise the annual collection report, providing justifications for unauthorized collections to ensure compliance.

The email reads: “If you cannot find any mention of these red highlighted ones on any of the spreadsheets, can you provide the reason for why they were collected — e.g. it could be collection error — you thought those species were listed on the request spreadsheet, or you thought those amount or life-stages were listed on the request spreadsheet — or I’m not sure if some were accepted as donations from other institutions — i.e. you weren’t planning on collecting but they opportunistically became available through a donation?”

To spur the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees aquatic resources, to act on collection violations namely in the pet aquarium trade, a group of conservationists that includes Umberger petitioned in October for a review of the regulatory framework. They urged the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to clarify its authority to prohibit commercial aquarium collection statewide and deny permits for such activities.

For the Fishes also is calling for the immediate revoking of the Maui Ocean Center’s special activity permit and a review by the state board, warning that without stronger oversight, the future of Maui’s reefs could be at greater risk.

THE PERMITS: COLLECTION VIOLATIONS

Since January 2022, For The Fishes has provided feedback on 12 special activity permits related to “aquarium purposes” for the Department of Land and Natural Resources. While some of its feedback is integrated into new permits, the issuance of a permit is not contingent upon approval by the nonprofit, the Division of Aquatic Resources said.

In March of 2024, For The Fishes began its review of the Maui Ocean Center’s compliance with its 2022-23 permit by analyzing the aquarium’s 2022-23 collection report and obtaining related emails through public records requests. The nonprofit concluded there were 91 instances of improper collection: 34 unauthorized species, 41 excessive quantities of certain species, and 16 fish collected at unauthorized life stages. These alleged infractions constituted 35% of the collections made during this period.

The state had flagged just 11 violations (taking seven blacklisted species of regulated organisms: redlip parrotfish, stareye parrotfish, bullethead parrotfish, palenose parrotfish, blacktip shark and two bluefin trevally; and taking unauthorized amounts of species of regulated organisms: two manybar goatfish and two blacktip reef sharks). 

For the Fishes sent its findings to the state. In an email dated April 24, the state’s coordinator of Special Activity Permits, aquatic biologist Catherine Gewecke, responded by thanking For The Fishes for flagging “issues with the data” and saying it had addressed the “mistakes” with Maui Ocean Center.

On Aug. 13, the state issued the ocean center a notice of permit violation, characterizing all of Maui Ocean Center’s 11 official violations as “mis-collections” attributed to “human error.” It did not cite Maui Ocean Center for any of the infractions alleged by For the Fishes.

The Division of Aquatic Resources said it addressed these 11 mistakes by integrating additional clarifying language into the permit conditions and updated existing conditions for the Maui Ocean Center’s 2024-2025 renewal. The division said the remaining 80 potential violations flagged by For the Fishes were for non-regulated organisms, which “would not require a permit in themselves.”

For the Fishes argues that collecting unauthorized fish went against the terms of the permit, which makes these collections illegal per Hawaii Administrative Rules: “When the Maui Ocean Center collects marine animals not specifically authorized under the special activity permit, those collections are illegal, regardless of whether they involve ‘regulated’ species,” Umberger said.

Matthews said the nonprofit misrepresented the number of violations, which “is unfortunate and disappointing.” He said to remedy its “small number of unintentional mis-collections,” the center has implemented corrective measures that include additional training about how to identify the species and age of fish.

After the Maui Ocean Center’s latest special activity permit was issued, Umberger said she adopted a more vigilant approach to assess the collection report under the aquarium’s permit in 2021. She said that report revealed an even greater number of unauthorized takings, 500 violations, accounting for 62% of all ocean collections that year.

Her analysis concluded the aquarium illegally took 224 fish across 41 unauthorized species, exceeded collection limits by 264, and captured 12 fish at unauthorized life stages.

The documents confirm a pattern by the Maui Ocean Center of a “total disregard for the terms and conditions” of its permits and “appalling mortality rates that go hand in hand with their complete disrespect for the animals under their care,” Umberger said.

THE DATA: HIGH MORTALITY RATES

Unlike fish collection, there are no regulatory limits on animal mortality at the Maui Ocean Center. The aquarium has acknowledged, however, that its mortality rates exceed the norm.

In a “Potential Permit Violation List” document Maui Ocean Center sent earlier this year to the Division of Aquatic Resources in response to mitigating mortalities, the aquarium estimated that the normal mortality rate for animals collected for public aquariums is between 20% and 30% within a year, and that it’s usually related to transport.

The Maui Ocean Center reported its animal mortality rate was double that from 2021-2023, and the animals were transported only short distances and not flown in planes.

While a “standard” mortality rate is up for debate and still being defined by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Matthews of the Maui Ocean Center said the typical mortality rate often bandied around is 43%. Over the last two permit years, the aquarium’s mortality was still higher than that.

The reported mortality rates for fish and invertebrates within the first year of collection was 68% in 2021-22 and 58% in 2022-23. Most deaths occurred within a month of capture and were not attributed to transport, according to the aquarium.

The 700 newly collected animals that perished from 2021 to 2023 died of various causes, including age, predation, failing to eat in captivity and contracting bacterial infections or parasitic infections shortly after arrival, the collection reports said.

Matthews said some fish that died had arrived injured or sick. For instance, a blacktip reef shark labeled as “dead on arrival” had been treated in Maui Ocean Center’s quarantine area for an ulua fishing hook injury that ultimately led to its death two weeks later.

Vuori said the mortality rate figure misrepresents the nuances of the aquarium because “dead on arrival” had been the only animal-death designation in the Division of Aquatic Resources identification methodology up until 2023.

“Presented at face value, it looks like 50% just died through our mishandling,” Vuori said. “We are working with the state to calibrate this so it’s a more accurate representation of what is actually happening. It should be available for the public to see and, ultimately, the public needs to decide what is acceptable for them.”

But Umberger suspects that many of the mortality cases stem from poor husbandry. She suggested that the aquarium may lack motivation to protect fish that are collected for free and without the risk of penalties.

Collection reports show the Maui Ocean Center also continually collects a multitude of fish species despite a well-documented history of mortality in captivity.

Among the unique species in this category are spotted boxfish. The square-bodied, slow-moving fish rely on specific reef habitats to thrive. According to For the Fishes, they should not be collected due to their complex dietary needs and sensitivity to water conditions. 

Records show that out of the 11 spotted boxfish collected in 2021–22 — nine over the permitted limit — seven died, two were returned to the sea sick, and one had missing data. Despite a zero percent success rate, the next year four more boxfish were collected from Māʻalaea, two without authorization. None survived.

Nudibranchs, often called “sea slugs,” also are known to fare poorly in captivity but are not listed as a restricted species in the permit. Matthews says, because of their ability to serve as “entry points” for many people, the “awe and wonder attached,” significance of nudibranchs in the ecosystem and education possibilities are worth the collection. In 2022-2023, all but one nudibranch — collected by the Maui Ocean Center to be put on display — died.

“The team is well aware of the challenges associated with certain species,” said Maui Ocean Center curator Chris Keller in an email. “However, these decisions are made in consultation with marine biologists, veterinarians, and specialists to weigh the benefits of education, research, and conservation against the challenges of their care.”

For species known to have higher mortality rates, the ocean center implements “specialized care protocols, including acclimation procedures, advanced tank setups, and monitoring to improve survival outcomes,” This method contributes to a broader understanding and potential improvements in husbandry practices globally, Keller said.

“While mortality for some species is higher, the larger program’s conservation and educational value remain significant,” he said.

Matthews said For the Fishes’ opinion of its husbandry’s quality is “willfully negligent and harmful.”

He touted the aquarium’s highly skilled, educated and experienced staff, saying some have double master’s degrees in marine biology and others have been in the field for more than 30 years.

“It is important to note that we are talking about the mortality of a small number of fish introduced within their first year,” Matthews said. “We have over 84 exhibits … and over 2,000 animals of over 240 species that thrive under our care.”

THE FUTURE: WILL FISH COLLECTION PRACTICES CHANGE?

Umberger has wrestled with the state to curb commercial fish collectors for over a decade.

Fish collectors in Hawaiʻi used to be the third-largest aquarium supplier in the nation. But that began to change when Umberger lobbied for fish extraction regulations that led to strict Maui County ordinances being passed in 2010 and 2011. This all but ended the aquarium fish trade in Maui Nui.

But Umberger wanted to expand the prohibition to all of Hawaiʻi. In 2014, she was documenting fish collection underwater on the Big Island when a fish-collector pulled the air regulator from her mouth at 50 feet deep. This incident led to her being the plaintiff in a successful lawsuit against the state that initially lost in lower courts. The Supreme Court in 2017 ordered a stop to the commercial collection of aquarium fish in Hawaiʻi pending an environmental review.

Compared to the larger fish trade, Umberger acknowledges that the Maui Ocean Center’s yearly collection numbers are relatively small. However, she believes the focus should be on protecting Maui’s rapidly degrading coastal ecosystems, which are threatened by concentrated fish collections on the same reefs. 

According to the latest collection report, about 46% of the fish lack locational data, making it difficult to assess the full impact. Among the remaining fish, Māʻalaea Bay, the nearest to the Maui Ocean Center, was the most common collection site, accounting for 22% of all specimens.

“What I noticed from the spreadsheet was how heavily they were hitting certain places,” Umberger said. “That’s where the impact would be most significant.”

The Maui Ocean Center, which is visited by about 400,000 people each year, said it also cares about ecological consequences. It hosts numerous educational events each year, is heavily involved in islandwide conservancy and rehabilitation efforts, and employs Maui residents, many of whom are passionate about marine conservation, sustainability and advocacy. 

This year, it was voted the 7th best aquarium in the country by USA Today readers.

But Umberger said the high mortality rates contradict Maui Ocean Center’s position as a conservation hub. And both Umberger and Gibson have criticized the way the Maui Ocean Center presents information, with Umberger adding it would be a shame that the Maui aquarium could potentially fracture its public trust.

The Maui Ocean Center points out that it does return some species, saying online that some fish may not be on display “due to constant rotation of animals back to the ocean.”

Umberger and Gibson say that is misleading. For example, the species listed on the same page as the online disclaimer saw a combined mortality of 53% within a year of capture, with only two animals being returned to the ocean from 2022 to 2023. The prior permit year saw 14 individual fish returned to the ocean, while 548 died after collection.

Since it opened 26 years ago, the aquarium has never had to make collection data accessible to the general public. And in 2017, Vuori told The Maui News that the ocean center returned more than half of the fish it collected, but declined to share raw numbers. Vuori said Thursday that he may have “misspoken” at the time.

But Keller, in an email to the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative days earlier, said Vuori’s 2017 statement was accurate at the time, and said that operational goals and collection strategies have since evolved in response to research, conservation priorities and resource management.

The recent small number of animals returned to the sea reflect the aquarium’s current “conservation realities,” Keller said. He cited risks of releasing unhealthy fish into wild populations and strict regulations in how frequently animals can be released.

Keller said the online disclaimer about the “constant rotation of animals back to the ocean” is intended to reflect the aquarium’s philosophy of managing its collection responsibly and sustainably, but “may require refinement to better align public perception with current practices.”