Two Honolulu hula supply store owners who insisted they were unaware of a state law barring the removal of rocks from beaches were fined $3,500 yesterday for taking as much as $20,000 worth of ili ili stones from a Maui shoreline.

 

  Hula Store Illegally Takes Stones

 

  Oahu Hula Supply Store owners, Michael and Sylvia Kop violated state laws after trying to bring Iliili stones from a preserved area on Maui. 

 

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  The state Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously accepted a staff recommendation to punish Michael and Sylvia Kop for removing 16 five-gallon buckets of the small rocks from Waiehu Beach on May 29. The couple, who own the Hula Supply Center on South King Street, said they would appeal the administrative sanction.

The small, smooth stones are used in hula dances to provide a rhythmic sound much like castanets.

In testimony before the board voted, Michael Kop said he had gathered stones from Waiehu Beach since he was a child and has frequently done so in more recent years to sell at his store.

“;I never felt I was stealing rocks from this beach,”; he told the board.

His wife said they did not know of the state law prohibiting the extraction of rocks, sand, coral and other natural material from beaches and submerged lands, other than small amounts for noncommercial use.

But the Kops also complained that there were no signs warning of the law.

“;We're admitting we took the rocks,”; she said, adding that she and her husband were trying to fulfill a demand for the stones for use in cultural ceremonies.

“;It's a service,”; she said. “;It's strictly a service.”;

But board members were unsympathetic to the Kops' argument.

Samuel M. Gon III said it was “;offensive”; for the couple to couch a commercial enterprise as a cultural one. Robert Pacheco said the couple, as business owners, should have known the law on removing rocks.