The ocean police
We have an oceanfront condo on Alii Drive. Yes, we are fortunate. We don’t live there, but we live in Paauilo, so we get there as often as we can.
We used to see spinner dolphins like clockwork every morning, going towards downtown Kona, then back south. The tour boats used to be out there swimming with them — very respectfully, I might add.
It seemed like the dolphins enjoyed the interaction. We can’t ask them, of course, but we can observe them if they were still there.
Who was it that decided swimming with them was detrimental? Who decided to put many tour operators out of work, and take away an experience that visitors and kama‘aina enjoyed? I bet the dolphins miss it, too.
I don’t recall any bad actors. The operators and participants policed themselves. Who were they hurting?
These do-gooder NIMBYs have no right to interfere with our interactions with nature, as long as we are respectful … just because they think it’s wrong.
Of course, some regulation and enforcement is needed. Maybe enough people and our politicians can bring back something good. It’s not like they are out there in the cover of darkness like the poachers.
Let’s not let the ocean police win again. Pretty soon they will ban ocean activities altogether.
Right now, our access to the ocean cliffs in Hamakua is being blocked off illegally by large gates. This has gone on for years. Where is the enforcement?
Why aren’t they stopping that? Time to bring back our ocean access and our right to swim with wild dolphins.
Jamie Reno
Honokaa
Cats must go
I figured I’d just jump into the feral cat scene here.
I like cats. I had pet cats when I was a kid in Kailua, Oahu. And, yes, we didn’t always keep our cats in the house, but we had them spayed and neutered so that there would not be “choke” cats and kittens around the neighborhood.
However, the state of Hawaii has an enormous problem with cats as predators when it comes to our native birds. These birds are found nowhere else in the world, and their nests in many of the native forests are being destroyed by feral cats.
There are feral cats in the national park, in the ohia forests on the slopes of Maunakea.
Okay, so we could “trap, sterilize and release.” Can we do this to 100% of the population? I doubt it.
And even if we are successful with trapping, etc., the feral cat population is so large that our native birds are still at risk.
The reality is sad, but it is necessary. Feral cats have got to go if we are to protect our native species.
Mary Hudak
Hilo