HILO, Hawaii — The Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources fined a man more than $600,000 on accusations of poisoning a stream, killing an estimated 6,250 Tahitian prawns.
It was the largest fine to date for an aquatic resource violation in the state, West Hawaii Today reported.
Wayne Keaulana Spatz, 54, allegedly poured ant poison into Paaheehee Stream in North Hilo on the northeastern side of the Big Island. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach Spatz for comment on Monday were unsuccessful. Phone numbers and an email associated with him were no longer in service.
Officials indicated it’s unlikely that Spatz, who they said has no known address, would be able to pay the penalties and that they were unable to contact him to inform him of the impending fine, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Spatz’s alleged activity was discovered after Edwin Shishido, an official with the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, received a tip from a person living nearby of someone pouring “Home Defense” liquid ant poison into the stream last July. Thousands of dead Tahitian prawns flowed downstream.
In the following months, Shishido conducted an investigation and found that soil and prawn samples from the stream tested positive for bifenthrin, an insect repellent ingredient.
Bifenthrin is extremely toxic that has been shown to cause long-lasting harm to aquatic ecosystems, said Troy Sakihara, a biologist who joined the investigation. Using pesticides is “understood to be a terrible method of collecting fish,” harming the fish and potentially the people who consume them.
Authorities have warned people not to eat freshwater Tahitian prawns without knowing where they came from because of similar cases in which pesticides were used to collect the delicacy.
In addition to $100 fines for each of the 6,250 prawns that Spratz allegedly took, he was fined $200 for alleged unlawful use of poisonous substances and $8,640 for research and overtime by Department of Land and Natural Resources investigators — amounting to $633,840.
“The action sends a strong and clear message to anyone else who is endangering people’s health and killing life in our streams,” said Suzanne Case, chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Over the last week, officials have received more reports of people using pesticides in streams to collect prawns so they can sell them, Case said.
“It is illegal and morally indefensible, and anyone caught will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.
