Friday, July 04, 2008
Superferry rock smugglers face justice
by Larry Geller
Do you remember how last year, when the Superferry started up, right away some river rock smugglers were nabbed taking advantage? According to this Maui News story, they will now have to pay up.
WAILUKU - Three Oahu men next week face a total of $9,150 in fines and penalties for allegedly removing three pickup loads of rocks from the Paukukalo shoreline last summer for imu, or fire pits, back home to benefit their church and local charities.
Based on a complaint from the Maui Sierra Club, state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers discovered 934 river rocks under tarps loaded on three trucks waiting for the Hawaii Superferry on Aug. 28.
The Kaneohe men's trucks had been left stranded in the Hawaii Superferry parking lot a day after a 2nd Circuit Court judge issued an injunction that prevented the new ferry service from traveling to Kahului from Honolulu Harbor, the day after service began.
The case of the unpermitted rocks received additional attention last year when Superferry opponents used it as an example of how the access to the islands provided by the ferry service could lead travelers to deplete natural resources.
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I wonder if they will be made to put the rocks back where they found them, one by one?
What about all the other consumable natural resources that DOA and DLNR are observing being taken from Maui to Oahu? My understanding (from the OTF reports) is that the laws and enforcement do not allow them to do much about it. It is inconsistent with kuleana to go to somebody else's ahupuaha and take natural resources indiscriminately that one did not help to raise. Governor Lingle and the Legislature need to do something about this. Aloha, Brad
“But it’s for the church”- one of the most destructive phrases ever spoken.
It took them a year to come up with that lame-o excuse. If anything they should throw the ring-leader bishop in the pokey and fine the church. The fact that they said they didn’t know it was illegal is even worse- shows how little respect for local resources and culture these missionaries have that it wouldn’t occur to them or they never heard it’s illegal.
Ahupuaha, or more properly written, ahupuaha'a, was a slice of land extending from the mountain to the ocean. It was assigned to or given to villagers by a chief to take care of. It included everything needed from water, to farmland, to fishing.
When you find words from the Hawaiian language, the meaning is usually revealed by Google, don't hesitate to look them up with a quick search.
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