On Sunday a group of 33 swimmers – mostly young and white, from photos provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources – chased a pod of wild dolphins in Honauna Bay on the island of Hawaii.
Officers of the Uniformed Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement were there. They obtained drone footage of the swimmers “aggressively chasing, corralling, and harassing the pod,” took down the names and turned the case over to federal law enforcement for further investigation.
Federal law requires people to stay 50 yards away from spinner dolphins in nearby Hawaiian waters — a rule that took effect in 2021 amid concerns that too many tourists were swimming too close. dolphin. Spinner dolphins hunt at night and need to rest during the day. The pursuit of curious people disturbs their rest and can lead to a greater risk of theft. And for what? A selfie?
Not only will this likely prevent these 33 swimmers from ever trying to swim with wild dolphins again, it will hopefully send another message: DOCARE is watching.
For years the enforcement division has been criticized for not being visible enough, for not responding to complaints strongly enough, for not arresting violators.
But until last month, the state had only 54 enforcement officers to manage and protect 3 million hectares of marine water, the largest tropical forest in the country, the 11th largest forest reserve in US where more than 1 million hectares are allocated. for hunting, 1.2 million hectares of state-owned land, 2 million hectares of conservation land and 23,000 hectares of wetlands.
Compare that to the 1,820 sworn police officers who patrol Oahu alone. Fifty-four DOCARE officials seem almost laughable.
This month 41 men and women — the largest recruiting class to date — graduated from an intense, eight-month training program to become DOCARE officers. The newly commissioned officers — 14 on Oahu, 14 on the island of Hawaii, seven in Maui County and six on Kauai — began work Monday.
This is one thing – but in the end it is not enough.
“These officers are generally game wardens, forest rangers, park rangers, police officers, marine patrols all combined,” said DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla. “They were answered from mauka to makai, 3 miles from the sea. That is their area of responsibility.”
“Literally, in an eight-hour shift, you can go after poachers in Pali, conduct fish market inspections in Chinatown, conduct recreational inspections in Waikiki, all in the same transfer. It will happen,” he added.
Redulla, who has been with DOCARE since 2004 and has served as an officer himself, is fully aware of the challenges facing the department, especially the increasing pressure to preserve Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources in this post-pandemic era. restricted, less-impact-on. -the-environment-please climate.
“We have been degraded by the officials for a long time so it is difficult to meet the expectations of the people in the service,” he said. “We’re in a reactive mode versus a proactive mode, and as a law enforcement agency, that’s not a good thing for us.”
To be more active, however, requires officers on land (or water). Even with the new 41 officers, the department still has 24 vacancies to fill, Redulla said. And that is not enough.
The scope of what these officers are doing is mind-boggling. They respond to everything from lost hikers on state trails to vandals of sacred cultural sites. They are called when owners are doing authorized work on homes that fall into the sea on the North Shore.
“These officers are basically game wardens, forest rangers, park rangers, police officers, marine patrols all combined.”
DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla
They are called when construction crews find human remains at work sites. They are called out when people harass wildlife, such as swimmers corralling spinner dolphins. The officers even have a special permit to bring their vehicles to the home state because they are often called out at night and on weekends to respond.
“We’re not very visible to the public, we don’t have a lot of visibility, and we know it’s a problem,” Redulla said.
In 2018 the department launched the DOCARE Academy, then a six-week course for recruits with first-time law enforcement work experience and training. The following year the department held its first academy for recruits with no police experience. And in this latest class, all 41 are absent.
Allowing people with no law enforcement experience opens the door to a larger pool of applicants, Redulla said, and many times these recruits are more motivated to protect and preserve the natural, cultural and historical resources of Hawaii. (Another call for recruits will take place later this year.)
“It creates more diversity (within DOCARE),” he said. “And the people we hire, especially the last class, they want to be here and they’re here for the right reasons, and that’s always a good thing.”
The job is not easy, especially to convince the public – and the government, which funds this department – how important it is.
Like any law enforcement agency, DOCARE officers are sworn to protect the public; that’s the No. 1 priority. But they have an added responsibility to protect everything that makes our island home so unique and special. Native plants and birds, beaches and mountains, wild fish stocks, sacred sites.
Native Hawaiians believe in the interconnectedness of all things, that the health of one affects the health of others. And this responsibility should not only be on the shoulders of DOCARE. We all need to feel this urgency.
“The bread and butter of what we do is patrolling the beat, getting out in the field and catching poachers,” Redulla said. “To the extent that we can do that, and to the extent that we can get more positions to do that, we can not only preserve and save our resources for the future, but we hope to send the message that we are no longer . there, we watch, and we act.”