Law enforcement officers will cite beachgoers coming too close to Hawaiian monk seals

By Kristen Consillio

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    HAWAII (KTBS) — After calls to shut down Kaimana beach, the state’s now stepping in to ensure public safety for both beachgoers and the endangered Hawaiian monk seals living there.

Starting today, law enforcement officers with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources will be at Kaimana beach 24-hours a day, ensuring beachgoers stay at least 150-feet away from Rocky, the Hawaiian monk seal, and her pup. That’ll last at least for the next two to three weeks until the pup weans.

“Most of the bad behaviors are happening during the daytime and particularly on weekends,” said DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison. “If you saw last Saturday some of the photos and stuff I mean there were hundreds of people surrounding these seals. Effective now, that should not be happening again.”

This is the first time DLNR is enforcing what have previously only been guidelines. And that enforcement could come with fines and jail time.

Penalties could range from $1,000 and/or 30 days in jail to $5,000 and a year of jail time.

“This had kind of become out of control. And again, it became a tremendous concern about people’s safety,” he said. “And so it just took some time because currently there’s nothing in state law that allows us to technically close the beach. And so we just were really looking for a way of what do we do right now — immediately — to protect people and to protect the seals.”

Not everyone believes the new police presence will make a difference. Waikiki beach boy Larry Akiyama’s been trying for weeks to enforce the guidelines himself.

“Nothing works over here. Tourists will never listen to anybody. They just ignore everything. They just take things into their hands. They just don’t care,” he said. “They yell at the lifeguards, this and that. They yell at us guys. Why can’t we see the seals? They chase one guy off the beach over there. He tell us, ‘Oh I’m a taxpayer, I can sit anyplace I like.”

DLNR said there will be at least one officer on duty both day and night — on land and on jet skis to make sure people give the seals their space.

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