State ban of tour boats hits choppy water BY PAUL C. CURTIS TGI Staff Writer The last remaining motorized, permitted, commercial tour-boat operators at Hanalei smell something fishy. And it has nothing to do with anything swimming in the river
State ban of tour boats hits choppy water
BY PAUL C. CURTIS
TGI Staff Writer
The last remaining motorized,
permitted, commercial tour-boat operators at Hanalei smell something
fishy.
And it has nothing to do with anything swimming in the river or
bay.
Brian Lansing of Whitey’s Boat Cruises, doing business as Napali
Catamaran, feels the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has a plan
to bring back big boating to Hanalei and that the agency needs to get the small
guys out of the way in order to do that.
“They already have a waiting list
for (commercial boats in) Hanalei, and now they think they can put us out of
business,” Lansing said. “The rumors are they’re going to bring back boating in
Hanalei in a big way, and for us to be put out of business, and then other
boating to be brought back into Hanalei — which is the state’s plan — that
seems like dirty business.
“My only comment is we should be first on the
waiting list, and if we’re not, it’s because there is some underlying plan,
some agenda, to get rid of us, so that they can get bring in big boating in
Hanalei.”
Lynn McCrory, the Kaua’i member of the state Board of Land and
Natural Resources, said she has heard of no such plan and doubts that one is in
place or in the works, especially given the community divisiveness created by
commercial boats in Hanalei over the past several years.
Howard Gehring,
administrator of DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Resources, nor any other
DLNR officials could be reached for comment.
McCrory said last month’s
board action — which she voluntarily recused herself from — will eventually
make it illegal for any commercial operators, other than two exempted kayak
companies, to use the bay or river for any of its commercial
activities.
The proposed rule changes, approved unanimously by the board,
are under final review by the state attorney general. They would become law if
approved by attorneys and signed by Governor Ben Cayetano.
Violations of
the rules, which could take effect take effect before the end of this year,
could subject violators to citations from the DLNR’s enforcement officers,
McCrory said.
“Our contention is they don’t even have the right to put us
out of business,” said Lansing. “They have only the right to regulate us, not
to eliminate us. We haven’t given up. That’s all I can say.”
Last month’s
action of the board hasn’t stopped the two permitted, motorized commercial tour
boats from making their daily runs. They have permits valid through February of
next year, Lansing said.
The only thing that has stopped them so far has
been the conditions under which they won’t operate for safety reasons: High
surf, high wind or rain, according to Lansing.
Those conditions, plus lack
of customers during certain periods, have limited the motorized operations to
under eight months a year, he said.
With just two motorized commercial
operators and several times that number of fishermen and recreational boaters
using the river and bay, the commercial uses aren’t the polluters or the ones
causing conflicting-usage or overcrowding problems, Lansing
contended.
There is something wrong with the state trying to eliminate the
two remaining law-abiding, permitted operators and not offering them places to
operate on the island’s west side, like it did for the un-permitted boaters, he
continued.
Gehring intimated at the board meeting “that they might bring up
more boating in Hanalei. And, if they do, for them to remove us and not put us
at the front of the waiting list, it appears to be some, like, dirty business
or something,” Lansing said.
“We’re just watching. We’re not really acting
on anything yet. We haven’t decided what to do,” he said. “We’re just amazed by
the whole thing. We’re only two of about 100 boats that use Hanalei
River.
“It appears that small tour-boat businesses in Hanalei are keeping
them from expanding to big tour-boat business in Hanalei. And for them to have
a waiting list without our names on it, as future permit-holders, is some kind
of a retribution or something. It looks pretty ugly.”
The state Small
Business Regulatory Review Board voted unanimously to suggest the state allow
the permitted, commercial tour operators to either be exempted from the new
rules or grandfathered in, should the new rules be approved by the Board of
Land and Natural Resources.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Lansing said.
“When they try to implement this, or when they try to put us out of business,
that’ll be the time that we have to decide what to do.
“They’ve put a lot
of energy into putting two motorboats out of business, when 100 other boats
still use the river. It’s just very suspicious. I have a feeling that a judge
might not view the actions of the DLNR as entirely legal.”
Meanwhile,
Kaua’i resident Ray Chuan’s Limu Coalition is claiming total victory with the
Board of Land and Natural Resource’s decision.
“Friday, Oct. 27, was a
memorable day, when the book was finally closed on the decades-old commercial
boating controversy in Hanalei,” Chuan said.
Cayetano and Tim Johns, board
chairman, “are to be thanked and congratulated, along with members of the
board, for their conviction in assuring the protection of the resources of the
North Shore,” Chuan said.
Chuan said the governor “took great political
risk” when he made the decision in August 1998 to ban commercial boating in
Hanalei, at a time when he was running a close election race against Linda
Lingle.
And Johns “will no doubt take a beating from some quarters in the
business community who think they have unlimited and perpetual license to
exploit the public’s resources,” Chuan added.
Staff Writer Paul C.
Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
