(Honolulu) – Compared to the past two Independence Day flotillas off Waikiki, this year’s was tame. Officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) joined with counterparts from the Honolulu Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division and the U.S. Coast Guard to show an enormous safety presence at today’s annual ocean gathering.
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(Hilo) – The urge to get up close and personal to lava during the current Kilauea eruption is not only unsafe but people who get caught now potentially face steep fines and jail time.
(HILO) – Officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) are seeking information about the person or persons who butchered a 250-pound green sea turtle at Onekahakaha County Beach Park in South Hilo. A DOCARE officer estimates the turtle’s shell as at least 80 centimeters in size. Officers report that the turtle’s front two flippers were amputated and it appeared the suspect(s) was interrupted and left the scene without the turtle.
(HONOLULU) – Had it been something other than a sharp fishing knife perhaps the video would have been endearing? A Hawaiian monk seal pup named Manu‘iwa recently weaned from its mother on a Hawai‘i Island beach. Staff from Ke Kai Ola, a hospital operated by The Marine Mammal Center at Kailua-Kona and officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) have been monitoring the pup’s health and growth.
(Lihue) - Two dozen officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE), the Kaua‘i Police Dept., and State Sheriffs removed a total of five people from two parcels of DLNR land this morning. . In the week’s leading up to today’s operation the squatters were offered services to help them find permanent housing, but they declined.
(HONOLULU) – Three officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) and three lifeguards from the City and County of Honolulu Ocean Safety & Lifeguard Services recovered an enormous and extremely heavy ball of derelict fishing nets this afternoon. It’s not known whether the nets are part of the two-mile-long marine debris field that was first reported by a fisherman last weekend between Moloka‘i and Oah‘u? DOCARE officers familiar with the area where the net was spotted, feel that it is. They say it’s unusual to finding nets of this magnitude off Waikiki.
(KANEOHE) – The carcass of a three and a half ton Humpback whale that stranded on a reef just off of Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i (MCBH), was successfully removed today. It’s believe the carcass may be the same one spotted off Haleiwa earlier in the week. In Kaneohe Bay the carcass split into two major pieces, with the whale’s skull sticking out of the water a short distance from the main carcass.
(HONOLULU) – Each time a team of officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) flies into the Kalalau section of the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, they find fewer illegal camps and write fewer arrest citations to people in the area without required permits. As Hawai‘i’s largest and most remote state park, it is in the best shape in decades, due to the concentrated efforts of DOCARE and the DLNR Division of State Parks, which manages it.
(Honolulu) – Veteran DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) Officer James Ridzon has been selected as the first recipient of the DLNR/DOCARE Officer of the Year award. Ridzon has been with DOCARE for more than eight years and has earned a reputation as an effective investigator and strong protector of Hawai‘i’s natural and cultural resources.
A three day operation last week in the Kalalau section of Kauai’s Napali Coast State Wilderness Park resulted in additional arrests and the dismantling of large, illegal camps in Kalalau Valley.