Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Land Board
restricts Hanalei
boat tours
Lawyers gear up to fight
By Anthony Sommer
the plan, which would put five
firms out of business
Star-BulletinHANALEI, Kauai -- Sure signs of spring in this north-shore Kauai community are the diminishing north swell, the departure of the whales, the arrival of the Na Pali Coast tour boats and the renewal of a 20-year legal battle between the boaters and environmentalists.
Spring arrived in Hanalei yesterday.
New rules limiting boating activity in Hanalei to two kayaking companies were unveiled by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and lawyers for at least some of the five remaining tour boat companies immediately began revving up their engines.
If approved, the rules would put the three remaining sailboat and two remaining powerboat companies out of business. All the others were shut down in 1998 by Gov. Ben Cayetano. Most of the ousted companies moved to the south shore; some went out of business.
The agency has set a hearing on the proposed new rules for June 26 in Hanalei.
"The show's going to be the public hearing and we're definitely going to be gearing up," said Dennis Niles, attorney for several of the boating companies.
The draft rules are a result of an abortive attempt by the Department of Land and Natural Resources to throw the two remaining motorized-boat tours out of Hanalei last year.
The two tour operators -- Hanalei Sport Fishing & Tours and Whitey's Boat Tours -- sued the state, claiming it had no authority under either state laws or regulations to put them out of business. Circuit Judge George Masuoka agreed that the agency had failed to go through the proper rule-changing process and ordered the state to allow the two companies to remain in business.
The agency immediately responded by drafting even more restrictive regulations evicting both motorized and sail-powered tour boats and leaving only the two remaining kayak companies.
The boating companies are complaining that the process to rewrite the regulations is flawed at the outset because the state failed to follow a new law requiring a detailed "Small Business Impact Statement" showing the possible harm to small businesses as well as to the environment by a government action.
"They never even consulted us when they wrote it," said Amy Marvin, co-owner of Bluewater Sailing, one of the five companies that would be out of business.
State officials said yesterday that the companies will be allowed to remain in business until the rule-making process is complete. At a minimum, that would keep them open during this year's tour season, which lasts until the north swell returns in September.
DLNR Boating
Public Hearing Notices
and Draft Rules
