Sunken yacht to be left on seafloor for now – Maui News

The cost to pull the 120-ton yacht, the Nakoa, from the seafloor would be “extremely expensive and complicated,” said Dan Dennison, spokesperson for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The state has already shelled out at least $460,000 for the salvage work and said Sunday it plans to “aggressively pursue recouping all salvage costs from the owner.”

The Nakoa was grounded on rocks and reef at Honolua Bay for two weeks before it was finally freed by a rigging crew over the weekend, leaving many in the community upset over the physical environmental damage to the marine habitat, pollution to the ocean from the initial fuel leak, lack of enforcement in the bay and shipwreck prevention measures.

After multiple attempts, the salvage ship Kahi, which is operated by Visionary Marine LLC, and a tractor tug called the Mary Catherine, operated by Sause Brothers Inc. of Honolulu, pulled the Nakoa off nearshore rocks when there was a higher tide, DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation said Sunday. The salvage company and tug operators dealt with bad weather and rough sea conditions that stalled work prior to the salvage.

During towing, the yacht was listing as it took on water and eventually sank in about 800 feet of water about 3 miles off the coastline.

“As for the environmental impacts associated with the scuttling, they should be minimal, as all fuel and hazardous materials had been previously removed by a contractor working under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard,” Dennison said Monday morning. “The salvage contractor collected any items that were on the surface or floated up.”

DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources will be conducting an assessment of the nearshore coral and live rock this week where the yacht was grounded, weather permitting, Dennison said. An earlier assessment found that an estimated 30 coral and live rock had been damaged.

The DLNR will also be hosting an internal briefing to “identify gaps or challenges related to our response,” he added.

“Our voluminous media output has kept the community and the entire world informed about this grounding, every step of the way,” he said.

Yacht owner Jim Jones, who also runs Noelani Yacht Charters and now owes the state at least $460,000 in salvage costs, could not be immediately reached Tuesday. Jones has told Civil Beat that he intends to pay the bill.

Noelani Yacht Charters told The Maui News last month that the yacht passengers were on a family outing in Honolua Bay over Presidents Day weekend when the mooring line broke while attached to what DOBOR described as a two-hour-only mooring.

DOBOR does not regulate the day use moorings at Honolua Bay, so the department does not issue permits for those particular moorings. 

Saying the “disaster” was preventable, longtime shoreline access and environmental activist Kai Nishiki said that public trust resources, such as shorelines, coral reefs and the ocean, are not being protected from exploitation and tourism.

“If you look at most land-based businesses, there are rules, parking requirements for guests, health and safety inspections, and infrastructure capacity is considered, but not so when it comes to the ocean and shoreline,” Nishiki said Monday. “It’s just the Wild West out there.”

She added: “If the state DLNR does not have the capacity to properly protect the public trust, then all commercial activity should cease until we are confident and it can be demonstrated that appropriate measures are in place.”

Many folks have also expressed their frustrations over the amount of miscellaneous items floating through the channel and the damage to the pristine coral reef where the boat sat, fueling ongoing agitation over commercial activity in the bay.

“Commercial use of our shoreline and ocean is out of control, our public trust resources and our communities are suffering, while commercial operators are making bank,” Nishiki said.

The Save Honolua Coalition will be meeting with the community and decision makers to discuss next steps, Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin said Monday afternoon. Paltin, who holds the West Maui residency seat, is also president of the coalition.

As the council chairperson of the Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs and Planning Committee, Paltin said she’s also tentatively planning a maritime disaster meeting on March 22 to meet with DLNR’s various divisions so that they can “educate the council and the public on their role in preventing shipwrecks, their role once a shipwreck occurs.”

With the information, amendments or new legislation could be introduced that would “help to improve shipwreck responses from prevention to final cleanup,” Paltin said via phone Monday afternoon.

She’ll also be working with Maui state representatives, like West Maui Sen. Angus McKelvey and Rep. Elle Cochran, to see what legislation improvements are possible at the state level, what gaps need to be filled and how to strengthen enforcement.

“Obviously we’re going to need to do a lot of community outreach,” Paltin said.

On Sunday, Paltin watched as rigging crews tugged the leaning Nakoa out of Honolua Bay and down toward D.T. Flemings before it eventually was scuttled.

“If the owner had called the salvage crew on day one when it happened, when he first knew, it would have been a much better situation,” she said.

Though the salvage did not end perfectly, Paltin said that she was happy that the weather cleared with enough time to at least get the yacht off and away from the delicate reef and neighboring bays.

“To me, once he pulled it off the reef, I wanted it to get as far away from Honolua as possible because I didn’t want it to end up somewhere it could have been pushed with a future swell into the cave and damage the reef at a later point,” she said. “All those bays up and down the coast are precious to me. By the time they got the yacht far out to sea, it was already so far under.”

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.