Board denies permit for
kayak tour company

An Oahu tour company's year-long "experiment" offering kayak tours in a Waianae Coast area frequented by spinner dolphins has been shut by public demand.

During more than seven hours of testimony yesterday and on June 9, detractors said that Makua Lani's kayak tours for Japanese tourists disturbed both the dolphins and schools of akule that frequent the bay fronting Makua Valley.

They also questioned the organization's nonprofit status and the appropriateness of tourism in an area revered by native Hawaiians.

Supporters of the company, including many of its 26 employees, asked that the Board of Land and Natural Resources permit it to conduct tours from state land for another year.

They emphasized how the company employs Waianae young adults who might otherwise find it difficult to find a job, that the company leaves the beach cleaner than it finds it, and provides a cultural experience for Japanese tourists.

Board member Kathryn Inouye said she was "very moved and very impressed" with the enthusiasm of Makua Lani's employees. "But this is not about jobs, this is not about you against older people or you against fishermen," she said in a motion not to renew the permit.

"We can't personalize the issue," Inouye said. "The permit was a test and the test didn't work."

Makua Lani's current permit, which allowed it to bring up to 28 tourists to Makua Bay each weekday, expires Thursday.

DLNR Director Peter Young said the department would work with Makua Lani if it wanted to consider operating in other areas.

Makua Lani Director Richard Holland said if the company cannot operate at Makua, it will close.

"Native Hawaiians have sustainably harvested this area for generations. It must be protected," Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Dante Carpenter said. "The carrying capacity for tourism operators in this area has appears not only to have been met, but exceeded."

Waianae Coast residents who opposed the Makua Lani permit yesterday said they support Senate Bill 1262, which seeks the possible establishment of an Ocean Recreation Management Area for the coast from Kalaeloa Point to Kaena Point.

The bill, which is on Gov. Linda Lingle's desk, would halt any new commercial vessel permits for the Waianae Coast and require an environmental study of the area and the effects of different uses of the ocean, including fishing and ocean recreation.

Lingle could sign the bill into law, allow it to become law without her signature or veto it.