Trending
The Maui News
Gov. David Ige signed changes to rules for small boat harbors, facilities and offshore waters, including bans on feeding feral animals and abandoning them at harbors and new rules for dive flags.
The rules are intended to improve management of small-boat harbors, which are under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and ocean recreation-related activities in state waters. State officials have said that the majority of the amendments were aimed at making the rules more user-friendly and providing greater clarity.
At a Maui hearing in July, the feral and abandoned animal rule changes drew the most comment. State officials said the new sections were added in response to complaints of increased feeding of feral animals at boating facilities, creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions that could endanger sea life.
Violators could face fines of up to $1,000 and a jail term of up to 30 days.
Some testifiers worried about the fate of animals at harbors and noted that only a small percentage of cats have toxoplasmosis, a parasite blamed for the deaths of monk seals.
The dive flag rule also was addressed at the Maui hearing. The new rules will require dive flags to be illuminated at night and divers to surface within 100 feet of the flag. Vessels generally are prohibited from approaching inside 100 feet of a dive flag.
Other changes address sleeping and camping when not onboard vessels and alcohol sale and consumption at small-boat harbors and boating facilities; restrictions on anchoring or mooring outside designated offshore mooring areas; and requiring thrill-craft operators to pass a state approved course.
The news release from Ige said that the state has a responsibility for health and safety of harbor users and to protect endangered species from feral animals.
"It is important to have a mechanism to address the department's harbor health and endangered species concerns as necessary," Ige said in Friday's announcement.