Popular Kona ocean tour company reaches milestone

An ocean adventure tour company is celebrating 50 years in business in Hawaii.

Captain Zodiac started in Kauai in 1974 by Clancy Greff, son of a Navy admiral.

“They were basically running shuttle trips out the Na Pali coastline on the Kalalau Trail,” said current owner Colin Cornforth. “You could buy a one-way ticket and either get dropped off or picked up at the end of the Kalalau. That’s how the concept of ocean rafting started in the world.

“We were the first company in the world that utilized zodiacs for commercial passengers for hire. It quickly evolved from there into sightseeing and snorkel tours that were run out of Hanalei Bay until the early ’80s.”

The business expanded to the Big Island in 1984 with two soft-bottom rafts. In 1993, they brought over the first hard-bottom inflatable raft — referred to as a rigid hull inflatable boat — and Cornforth said everything in the industry started evolving.

“It was a more stable platform for boats and more comfortable for wildlife and snorkeling excursions,” he said.

In 2004, the Kauai business was sold, and Bill and Linda Zabolski purchased the Kona operation. That is when Cornforth and his wife, Amy, started working for the company.

“I worked for them for 15 years and knew they were in their early 60s and looking forward to retirement,” he said. “My wife and I at that time had been with them for so long, I really did not want to see all of my years of dedication to this company get bought up by an outside company or an outside investor. I wanted to strengthen our support in the community and the basis of our clientele, which has been supporting Captain Zodiac since the ’80s.”

The Cornforths purchased the company in May 2019 less than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My wife was integral in securing the first (Paycheck Protection Program) loan awarded on the island. She was in Zoom meetings daily following the trends of the pandemic to make sure we could take care of our employees,” he recalled. “What was of utmost important to us was making sure that we secured our staffing. I was familiar with a lot of other companies that let everybody go, but we took the other approach that whatever we get out of this, we are going to share with everybody. We secured funding and shut our doors on March 19, 2020, and didn’t open up again until the state opened up safe travel from the mainland in October 2020.”

The couple was able to retain all of their 17 employees.

Cornforth has been working with the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective out of Olympia, Wash., since 2015.

“They do a lot of field efforts for science based telemetry tagging and biopsy samplings,” he said. “They have a huge data set that has been going on for 23 years. I was given the opportunity during the pandemic to train a handful of my staff to become research biologists. We spent the better part of the pandemic offshore working with all of Hawaii’s dolphins and whales, getting a little money from the nonprofit to keep us going. It gave us something to do and something to look forward to and something to evolve our commercial business into having efforts that can support research, as well.”

He said his wife has joined the Sanctuary Advisory Council for humpback whales.

“She represents commercial operators here off of the Big Island. Whale watching during the winter months is a mainstay of our business, and continues throughout the year,” he said. “We’ve had efforts that expanded to working with the University of Hawaii Marine Mammal Research Program with a couple of post doctoral students that were doing surveys off the island for spinner dolphins. In 2021-2022 we spent 90 days off the west side of the island doing surveys from the north end of the island to Honokohau Harbor for spinner dolphin habitat, so we participated in a very comprehensive study and stock assessment.”

He said this has been an exceptional year for humpback whale tours.

“Our whale watching is probably the best it has been in about eight or nine years. We have been seeing a lot of new calves out here which shows the resilience of that species. It’s a bright future when you see a lot of moms and calves out here and a healthy population.”

Cornforth said he wants to continue their efforts and broaden research opportunities.

“We have been personally been asked to participate in the NOAA vessel surveys based through the Pacific Island Fishery Science Center. We want to continue mentoring younger people and new mariners on the island and keeping the tradition alive.

“This company is in its 50th year. It is something that is really important for us procuring the business (and) just making sure we could keep the history of this company surviving,” he said.

Their fleet of seven vessels depart daily from Honokohau Harbor, providing whale watching, snorkeling tours, pelagic wildlife excursions and private charters.

For more information, visit captainzodiac.com.