HILO — A Kealakekua Bay kayak tour company may lose its ability to take visitors to the Captain Cook monument.
HILO — A Kealakekua Bay kayak tour company may lose its ability to take visitors to the Captain Cook monument.
Hawaii Pack and Paddle violated the terms of its permit, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said, following an investigation into the July 4 death of a teenager from New York.
DLNR is recommending that the Board of Land and Natural Resources cancel the state-issued permit, which it could do at its meeting Friday in Honolulu. Hawaii Pack and Paddle owner and lead guide Bari Mims disputes the DLNR’s findings.
Hawaii Pack and Paddle is one of four companies that has a commercial permit to bring two trips per day, and up to 12 paying customers per trip to the designated kayak landing spot near where British navigator Capt. James Cook fell in 1779. Each landing must take less than two and a half hours, and visitors must stay within certain areas within Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park, according to the terms of the permit.
Bold Earth Teen Adventures, a Colorado company, had contracted with Hawaii Pack and Paddle to bring a group of teenagers to the monument on July 4. According to a lawsuit filed against Bold Earth, members of the group were hiking across the shoreline when they stopped to rest at a tide pool. A rogue wave or a series of waves swept Tyler Madoff, 15, and a 14-year-old boy into the ocean near the remote Kaawaloa lighthouse.
Published reports indicate that one of the Hawaii Pack and Paddle guides, Nolan Keola Reed, jumped into the surf to rescue and resuscitate Matthew Alzate, a Miami teen whose leg was broken in the incident. Reed is credited with saving Alzate’s life.
DLNR conducted its own investigation and found that Hawaii Pack and Paddle violated three terms of its permit. The company conducted a tour with 13 customers, instead of the maximum 12 allowed. The tour exceeded the maximum allowable time per landing, and the tour deviated from areas allowed under the permit.
In addition, the investigation also found that the company undercounted its customers and reported only four people on the July 4 tour, instead of the 13 that were present.
Hawaii Pack and Paddle, founded in 1991 as Kayak Historical Discovery Tours, pays $5 to DLNR for each customer that lands at the historic site. For the month of July the company reported bringing 173 customers to the monument and paid $865.
BLNR first executed its revocable annual permit to Hawaii Pack and Paddle in 2008 and issued the most recent extension last December. Mims and his family took over the company from previous owner Betsy Morrigan in January.
“Staff believes the three violations cited above constitute a material breach of the terms of the revocable permit and that the (BLNR) is within its rights to authorize the termination of the revocable permit,” State Parks Administrator Daniel S. Quinn said in his submittal to the land board.
If the board approves the action, the permit can be revoked 30 days after Chairman William Aila gives the company written notice.
Mims said his lawyers will try to postpone the revocation at Friday’s meeting, citing unspecified information that contradicts DLNR’s findings.
“As far as the three (violations) that are alleged … it’s all allegations,” Mims said. “That’s what the lawyers are going to present when they go in front of the board.”
Mims wouldn’t say what information he has and cited the possibility of a lawsuit by Madoff’s family.
“I hope the board will see we have information that contradicts what they’re trying to allege,” Mims said.