Trust fined $117K in Maui yacht grounding
COURTESY HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
The luxury yacht Nakoa is seen grounded in Honolua Bay.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources has voted to accept a $117,000 fine against the trust that was involved in the yacht grounding incident on Maui, but said that it wants to continue deliberating on a penalty against the operator of the yacht and his luxury yacht charter service.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Aquatic Resources had recommended the environmental fine against Kevin S. Albert, Kimberly L. Albert and the Albert Revocable Trust, and Jim Jones and his high-end luxury charter service Noelani Yacht Charters after damaging or destroying coral and live rock just outside the Honolua-Mokuleia Bay Marine Life Conservation District in February.
Jones had entered a 15-year purchase agreement with the trust to buy the 94-foot luxury yacht Nakoa.
More than 1,600 square feet of live rock and about 120 coral colonies, a DAR investigation found, were damaged when the yacht grounded into the shoreline. The division’s recommended fine came from in-house matrices used to assign monetary values for species and the area that were damaged.
But the land board’s unanimous vote to accept the fine against the trust and go back to the public to further assess a penalty for Jones came after the public testifiers and board members said the fine was too low.
On Feb. 18 and 19 the 120-ton yacht had been mooring overnight inside Honolua Bay. Jones was on the yacht with family, friends and a crew for recreational purposes. On the morning of Feb. 20, the yacht detached from its mooring and drifted into the shoreline, damaging thousands of square feet of shoreline.
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DAR representatives at the meeting said that it was fortunate that the grounding incident took place in an area that didn’t actually have much coral or substrate covered with a lot of life, but noted that its own recommended fine did appear low.
DAR’s assessment included a maximum fine that can be issued based on Hawaii state law, which it said would have been around $1,760,000.
The maximum fine was supported by several public testifiers on Friday.
