The Honolulu District Court yesterday heard closing summaries a case against the State of Hawaii for issuing aquarium collecting permits without an Environmental impact study.

The public trust law firm Earthjustice, representing a cross section of plaintiffs against the State, had no burden to establish harm but presented overwhelming evidence of harm to Hawaii reefs from massive aquarium extraction.

The DLNR argued that they’d been issuing aquarium collecting permits for 60 years and that they couldn’t enforce a ban on it.

The judge indicated that he will probably not consider DLNR’s claims as reason not to require an EA.