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Na Pali Coast decision
stuns tour-boat owners

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By Anthony Sommer
Kauai correspondent

LIHUE -- The remaining Na Pali Coast tour boats operating from Hanalei will be shut down as of tomorrow, the state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation has announced.

The announcement, in the form of a news release issued Monday, caught the boat owners by surprise. Although the Board of Land and Natural Resources passed a rule change eliminating the tour boats on Oct. 27, the state had not notified the boaters that Gov. Ben Cayetano had approved i.

"By failing to notify us, they're obviously attempting to keep us from challenging the new rules in court before they go into effect," said Bob Butler, owner of Captain Sundown Cruises. Butler and the owners of two other cruise boats said last month they would fight the new rules in court.

"From now on, we let the lawyers do all the talking," Butler said yesterday.

Two years ago, Cayetano ordered about 20 tour-boat companies, none of which had county permits, out of Hanalei. He allowed the five companies that held county permits to remain. This year, he decided to evict them as well. One permit owner already operates from Kauai's south shore and is not using the permit in Hanalei.

Cayetano's decision to evict the boaters culminated a 20-year battle between environmentalists and the tourism industry over the operation of tour boats out of Hanalei, a multimillion-dollar industry -- but it may not be over yet.

Butler, along with fellow boat owners Ralph Young and John White, are expected to challenge the rules claiming the state is being illegally arbitrary in taking their licenses. They have said that their remaining three boats are causing no harm either to the Hanalei River or Hanalei Bay.

The three already have lawsuits pending against the unlicensed boat operators and companies that provided them with customers. The lawsuits claim all that business should have gone only to the boats with county permits.

State boating officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Few tours have been run out of Hanalei in winter months because of the seasonal north swell and heavy surf in the bay.