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Home My WebLink About2020-02-11 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Meeting Date: February 11, 2020 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: Hawaii County Building – Council Chambers 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: Meeting was called to order at 6:37 pm.  Stanley Mendes, District 1 – present  Kean Umeda, District 2 – absent, excused  James O’Keefe - District 3 – present  Naniloa Pogline, District 4 – absent, excused  Abraham Antonio, District 5 - present  Grayson Hashida - District 6 - absent  District 7 - vacant  Teresa Nakama, District 8 – present  George Donev, District 9 – present Quorum established ALSO PRESENT: Malia Hall, Corporation Counsel Donna Urban-Higuchi, Executive Assistant to Mayor Kim GUESTS: Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia, Pepeekeo Shoreline Fishing Assn Todd Yukutake, Hawaii Firearms Coalition Director Tom Lodge, Hawaii Hunting Assn. (Excused Not Present) Roy Takemoto, Office of the Mayor, Managing Director . 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Action: T. Nakama moved to approve the minutes with correction of page 7, word there should be “pen” not “pie”. Seconded by G. Donev, motion carried unanimously. 3. FINANCIAL REPORT No report. 4. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC TA: My name is T. “Chewy” Anthony. I live across the street from Richardson’s known as Waiuli. I live down there for 39 years my whole life. JMG: I’m Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia from Pepeekeo – Makahanaloa – I brought a bunch of fishermen/hunters in today to introduce them to the GMAC cause 1 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 they really didn’t hear anything about it or knew anything about it but they here cause they get concerns of their shorelines and their grounds where they hunt and stuff like that so I introduce them to this GMAC so that they know that there’s a place that they can tell their stories and ask for help in whatever way you guys’ commission GMAC could help them. So this is their first time – they might be a little nervous, but, um, at least they’re here today. AA: Yeah, thank you for coming. So continue... TA: So one of my concerns was just poison and knowing that my sister and – they created like a non-profit and they care – they manage the fish ponds around the area in Keaukaha and restoration is like a big part of it and now there’s fire ants so they tend to spray poison for fire ants like on the low tide – not knowing that when the tide does rise later on all the poison is going into the water and they say it’s a poison that, um, it’s supposed to go – whatever the ants take it back to the queen and then it’s supposed to not be able to reproduce more fire ants – so I was thinking it’s going into the water and it’s going into the fish ponds – what about the fish – are they gonna be like contaminated by the same poison that’s making the ant not to be able to reproduce – so is the fish – is it the same thing or? You know, so that’s one of the concerns and just like, the other thing is we got like – some of the county parks – a lot of ‘em they’re – the water for the showers is just going back into the ocean or going back right into the ground or just right into the pond and nobody really like cares about that and people are going over there and all their different soaps or whatever and it’s going into the water nowadays there’s a lot more people coming to the beach especially cause there’s no Pohoiki and whatever so it’s another big concern, you know, all the different soaps and stuff going into the water so that’s just one of my main concerns is – not just people over fishing or whatever they’re trying to make – but the things that are going into the water right in front of everybody’s eyes and nobody really notices, so... That’s just something I have to bring up cause I tried to go to the Health Department and nobody really cares about it so... Maybe if I bring it up in something like this it’s gonna help out, you know, in the future of fish or whatever it is – the opae or, you know, just the ocean things around us – being by the ocean my whole life and that’s about all I’ve got to say. JO: Question – James O’Keefe here District 3 – you said they’re spraying for fire ants. Who is doing the spraying? TA: I think it’s the Board of Health is spraying it. JO: The Board of Health... 2 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 TA: And they’re supposed to be going to classes they say that, you know, does this and that and it’s supposed to be applied at certain times or whatever but they’re putting it right up to the waterline... JO: Really? TA: Yeah... JO: Do you know what – did they identify what chemical they’re using? TA: Um, it’s a granualar now – they just go around. I don’t know what it is – they said it’s supposed to be non-harmful but it’s harming the ants so I figure – they said it’s only – all it does is they take it back to the main nest and then it makes the queen not be able to, you know, yeah, sterile, it can’t reproduce so... They’re spraying it all in the water, you know... JO: If it’s going in the water that would be an inappropriate use... TA: Yeah, and that’s what the fish pond is – main thing is restoration and you’re creating fish to eat. JO: OK. TA: So, that’s a big part of everything... JO: Yeah, that’s not an appropriate use. GD: Yeah, George, District 9. They’re probably using Borax. TA: Yeah... GD: Sorry, Boron pellets...Yeah – takes it back to the nest so that’s probably... TA: So it’s a granular that they’re just.... Oh, excuse me – krrru – and it goes everywhere. Sprinkles. I watch ‘em and you only can question ‘em so much before, you know... JO: Yeah... TA: It’s like wow... JO: Yeah, it would really help us I think if we could get – identify what agency it is... TA: Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the Board of Health – ‘because it got it on the... 3 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 JO: State Health Department... TA: Yeah, the Health Department - it’s the agriculture one over there... TA: Excuse me – would Vector Control – this is Teresa District 8 – would Vector Control be a part of that and not Department of Health. JO: That sounds like the correct one. TA: I think it’s Vector Control – county - is who we need to get in touch with and ask what methods they’re using to control fire ants because they put out fires for fire ants – vector control. AA: Abraham – District 5. That’s county parks, ah? TA: Yeah, I know county parks are control of it but they hire someone else on the side. AA: Yeah, we’d have to call county parks and go down and see who actually is doing the dispersion of the treatment. TA: Yeah, OK. AA: So that’s what we can do as just of right now – we just taking down notes of you guys’ complaints and whatever and then we move forward and we encourage you guys for come back. TA: And then the other thing was the shower – like I just see... AA: Yeah, the shower... TA: Nowadays there’s a school... AA: You’re actually right about, you know, you guys getting more people because of the lava and I take my family down to Keaukaha nowadays and a lot of the parks over there is infested with fire ants. TA: Yes, yes... AA: We stay hanging out underneath the trees and we getting rained on by fire ants so – but – yeah – it’s pretty bad but it’s like how much can the county or the state do – it’s an invasive species so right now that’s like their only way – I understand what you’re saying – polluting the water and the fish... TA: Yeah... 4 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 AA: I totally agree with you but, it’s like how much can they actually do. I pretty sure to help the public – they’re trying to figure out for themselves but they haven’t come to that point – we’ll make these phone calls for you guys and you guys come back again and we’ll try have the best answers for you guys. TA: Thank you, thank you. AA: That’s all we can do for you tonight. TA: Totally understandable – like I understand the procedure they go through and the things they got to do and stuff, but, it was just that... AA: Right, I agree with you... TA. Something in the brain. AA: Even the soaps and the shampoos, you know, you get coral bleaching they say from the sun tan lotion and all that so – all we can do as of right now – moving forward. TA: And there’s a school, too, now, and I noticed they’re kind of unaware because I see them washing all the kids stuff like Clorox washing ‘em in the shower and the shower’s just going like right into the water and I was like oohh. I don’t want to go and, you know, tell people how to do their job or anything like that it’s not me. AA: Do you know what school is that? TA: Um, I know it’s a little pre-school now it’s by Uli Ocean Center – Richards Ocean Center. I’m not sure who runs it or – I don’t really know anything about it but I know I see ‘em washing all the kids’ toys and all in the shower and stuff and knowing that it’s all going into the – everything goes into the pond.... AA: Is that the one by – across – when you come out of four miles intersection? TA: Ah, no, it’s all the way at the end – Richardson Ocean Park. AA: Yeah, yeah... TA: And now it’s by Uli and it’s the turn around and then there’s the building. It’s the only place they got a building there – there’s a police office in Richardson’s Park. AA: That’s that building that was always been there... TA: Yeah. 5 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 AA: Yeah, OK. OK. TA: So now there’s a preschool that just started like a few years now – so I just see ‘em like washing all their toys and stuff and I’m like, ooohhh – Clorox, you know? AA: Well, they da kine, ah? TA: Yeah, totally for the kids but I was thinking maybe of they’d do it in the sink or something that’s going into the sewage cause... AA: Right, right, right... TA: That’s the reason why all the – everybody had to connect to the sewage and no cesspools and all this... So we all pay sewage bills because of that reason... AA: Right, exactly. OK. You good? TA: Thank you. AA: Thank you. TN: Teresa from District 8. There is a beach environmental assessment and coastal health act called The Beach Act – and they’re going around the beaches to pay for their beach water quality monitoring public notification programs so that’s something we can look into and see if they do a study here on our beaches. OK. Did you all hear? AA: Yes. TN: So there is an organization you can look into. AA: Thank you Teresa. ?: First of all mahalo you guys. Mahalo for your guy’s time. Thank you for even listening to us. AA: Sorry for interrupting you but we got one presentation – you got to leave pretty soon – so can we push these guys on for little bit or can we put them like for three minutes or? OK. Can put you guys on the side for now because he got one plane to catch and he’s one of our presenters. 6 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 5. PRESENTATION: (taken out of order) b. Hawaii Firearms Coalition director, Todd Yukutake, Bills in the Legislature related to firearms, and how they may affect firearm users AA: So this is Todd Yukutake. We moving to presentation b. He’s with the Hawaii Firearms Coalition – he’s a director and he’s gonna talk about some bills in the legislature related to firearms and then he’s also – I guess he going touch up on some of the hunting ones too. TY: I’m Todd Yukutake with the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, I passed out a list of the bills at the legislature this year regarding firearms and also hunting. So I can go over all the bills real quickly and go more in depth in how they apply in hunting for the GMAC committee. Do you want me to go over everything or just the hunting related ones? AA: Um, I guess start with the hunting and then as long as much time as you can give us before you need to leave. TY: OK. Yeah, so, ah, I’ll go down the firearms list and say how some of these apply to hunting. Well HB 1599 – the second one on the list – permit to acquire a long gun – conforms to a hand gun permit. Some of these repeat also so I may just skip some of them later on if they’re a duplicate, but, ah, basically what this does currently in Hawaii – for handguns you have to get one firearms permit for each handgun that you buy – so that combined with your registration requires three trips to a police station with every handgun. Right now for rifles you get one permit it’s good for one year. You can buy as many rifles and shotguns as you wish – so that cuts down on the – and then after that you just register your rifle or shotgun. So that cuts down on the number of trips to get a permit. This bill would basically make it so the handgun rules apply to rifles and shotguns too – you have to get a permit for each one and make those three trips to a police station. I believe it also requires you to receive firearms training too – like for hand guns – to acquire a handgun you have to show your firearms training affidavit – same would apply for rifles and shotguns now. So if you never bought a handgun before and never took a firearms training and safety class – you would have to do that now for any future rifles and shotguns that you purchase. SM: Excuse me. Stanley from District 1. What about the Hunter Education – they was considering that to buy pistol – so that’s still... TY: That’s still valid. Good point. OK. Moving on to the next one. HB 1600. That repealed the provision to loan firearms to other people. So that would have affected – it’s very confusing – there’s this one on who you can transfer a loaned firearms to – there’s also HRS 134-5 which is basically allows a person to possess a rifle or shotgun to go target shooting or go hunting so it’s 7 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 very confusing but I believe that it would affect the hunting community a lot, basically you can’t – what I believe it’s how it’s written is you can’t borrow a rifle or shotgun from someone to go hunting. Let’s say your 18 year old son wants to go on a hunting/camping trip with his friends – he won’t be able to borrow your rifle and go out with them. Same thing for gonna go on African safari but you don’t have a big bore rifle – so you want to borrow your friends’ one – this bill would prevent that, it might also affect some classes – usually for the youth – like Boy Scouts – sometimes the instructor will borrow a rifle that’s from parents or other people and use it for his class. That may be prohibited also. It affects a lot of different areas. And a lot of people don’t realize that when it just says repeal provision to loan firearms. Ah, let’s see, going on – HB 1736 prohibits rifle magazines – well, actually, prohibits any magazines over ten rounds. Ah, current law says hand guns – you can’t have a magazine more than 10 rounds for a handgun. They’re gonna apply the same standard to every magazine so – usually that’s rifles but also, you know, specialty magazines for pistol caliber carbines or shotguns, special shotguns. But for rifles it’ll affect a lot of some hunters – you can hunt with an AR-15 rifle. Some people use AR-10s. I believe the Mayor of Kauai says he uses an AR-10 rifle for hunting. Pig hunters, M1 carbine – those usually comes with Stock 15 Round Magazines, so, for this – if it’s implemented – those magazines would have to be modified to fit only 10 rounds – maybe block it off – drive a rivet through the bottom – but that could affect the reliability of the magazine. Also, some of these magazines are very expensive – or vintage ones that you don’t want to modify, you’d either have to sell it to someone on the mainland or destroy them and buy new ones so, like for myself, I have probably 20 different magazines – probably worth about $400.00 that I have to replace if this bill were to go into effect. OK... Let’s see... HB 2465 – that’s one that we support – Farm Permits for U.S. Nationals. Right now the only people who that can own firearms in Hawaii are U.S. citizens and permanent residents. U.S. Nationals would be like American Samoans. They don’t have U.S. citizenship so in Hawaii they wouldn’t be able to buy any firearms. TY: It allows for U.S. Nationals to get the firearm permit to acquire – which they cannot right now. TN: So are you asking for our support or opposition? TY: Ah, that would be support, yeah, basically, so American Samoans can purchase a rifle or a shotgun to go hunting. GD: Donev District 9 – what is your color coding here? TY: The yellow means there’s a hearing coming up - scheduled at the state capitol. The red means it’s either past the deadline or deferred, which means put on hold – that usually means it’s dead for the year a lot of the times – but 8 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 it can’t be revived back. And just because it’s in red doesn’t mean it’s 100% dead – there are work-arounds to revive some of these bills. TN: Excuse me – we don’t have a copy of that – could you send over a copy? TY: Sure. TN: Thank you – Teresa in Kona. GD: Donev – District 9 – so for all of these bills you’re asking for our support? Is that? TY: Ah, some of these are opposed, ah, the previous ones I’m opposed to or HIFCO is opposed to. The Hawaiian U.S. Nationals to get firearms permits – we are supporting. GD: Thanks. TY: HB 2709 – Firearms and Estates – I believe this came about because of the officer shooting that happened last month where a person passed away and their firearms were kind of left in limbo. That one – this bill – we’re neutral on but basically before an estate can close the police are gonna check if there were any firearms owned by that person that passed away and that’s, from rumors I heard that the person involved with the shooting, I guess, a lot of those rifles were hunting rifles – so that one we’re neutral on. There’s HB 2736 for ammunition checks – basically, currently if you go to a gun store or any store that sells ammunition you can just buy it with no restrictions – under this bill you have to show your firearms registration permit to purchase ammo. If you don’t have a permit – you cannot buy ammo. Also, so that could affect people that don’t own firearms that go in on a hunting trip with other people but, you know, they have to buy their own stuff, could affect people from the mainland coming to Hawaii to hunt with their rifles. They don’t have to register it as long as they’re here for less than five days, but, they don’t have a firearms registration so they can’t buy ammo. Same thing with competitive shooters too, from the mainland. Another problem with this bill is you can only buy the ammunition that’s listed on your firearm’s permit so let’s say if you have an AR 15 you can’t switch out the uppers for it – no, usually it’s 5.56 but you can put a different upper on – you may need a stronger round to go hunting with, you know, a 6.8 or whatever other calibrated, you want to be able to buy that ammunition if your permit just says 5.56 of 2.23 on it. Same thing with the revolvers. .357 Revolver can shoot .38 special ammo too but usually on the registration it’s only .357. There’s other scenarios for that so I think you understand. There’s a lot of problems with this bill. OK... Let’s see... there’s SB 2811 on the back side – repeals a provision to loan firearms. It’s somewhere to the first one I talked about at the beginning where you can’t loan a firearm to another person. This one you can do it except the other 9 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 person needs to have a firearms permit, or a firearms registration form. Basically, they pass a background check or already own a firearm, so, and you can’t loan it to anyone else. So that’s a change with that. SB 3053 – ban on any gun of 50 caliber: that one was deferred so probably won’t see it again but basically usually they mean 50 cal browning machine gun, which is a military round, but, they didn’t specify that so it could affect muskets – if you hunt with a musket – could affect that 500 Smith and Wesson revolver – that’s 50 caliber – that would be banned under this bill as written but fortunately that one is deferred. SB 3054 – that was heard last week – basically you have to notify he police department if you permanently remove firearms from the state, maybe you move out-of-state or you sell it to someone on the mainland, you have 5 days to report it to the police department so they can take it – change the registration that was amended – you still have to do it – but there’s no penalty involved. Before it used to be a petty misdemeanor – so still have to do it but no penalty involved. So those are the firearms bills that concern hunting and then also I have a list of some hunting bills, now just to let you know I’m not a hunter – I can’t shot Bambi, but, you know, I’ll eat Bambi, no problem, if you shoot it. But, that’s basically my experience. I did go bird hunting a couple times but it turned into a long hiking trip instead. So, these are some of the hunting bills that I found going through the bills for the year – there’s probably about three thousand of them – two or three thousand of ‘em. Let’s see HB 1748 and also 2188 – they’re the same bill – that was heard yesterday in the Senate – basically right now these are for some hunting offenses – basically like hunting endangered species, some of ‘em are pretty petty, hunting at night on private property, hunting on another person’s property without permission, shooting wild, killing wild birds, currently for their first offense there’s a $200.00 fine possible, misdemeanor, imprisonment, I think of not more than one year. And on your second offense they’ll confiscate your firearms, animal parts and products obtained through a violation – so this bill basically copied the same violations to your first offense – basically they added arms confiscation and compensation of animal parts and products. So I thought that might be unwarranted – some of these offenses can be done unintentionally or by accident and the first offense can serve as a warning so I don’t think the confiscation of firearms was warranted. The Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office actually called me. They said they \[unclear\] firearms confiscation by a mistake so their recommendation to the committee for yesterday’s hearing was to take it out and just – they were more concerned with like ivory trafficking and things like that – I guess they didn’t realize all the other things like killing wild birds and stuff like that. AA: Abraham – District 5. So they going take another look into that bill before they even think about going anymore forward when you talked to them? TY: Yeah, they amended the bill to take out the confiscation of firearms for the first offense and it passed the Water & Land Senate Committee and it should be going for a vote and going to the Judiciary next. 10 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 AA: That one sound like we should oppose ‘em even more though. TY: Yeah, my concern with the firearms part, you know, that’s the Hawaii Firearms Coalition – I’m not too aware of hunting issues... Or what the views of the hunting community are. There’s HB 1862 prohibits DLNR for setting bag limits for game animals. So that passed, Environmental & Water and Land in the House. That one, I believe, the hunting community is opposed to when I looked through the testimonies. Ah, let’s see – the same is true for HB 1919 – that hit a deadline so... That’s for removing bag limits for pigs on Mauna Kea – that bill should be dead because of a deadline it didn’t meet. HB 1921 – hunting guides require written permission on private lands. I think that’s an administrative addition to a regulation where they need something in writing when they guide hunting on private land. HB 2042 hit a deadline also, remove bag limits for deer, goats and pigs – kinda similar to the other bill, ah, HB 1862 – one bill that came up for hearing today was, ah, SB 2417 – same as HB 2212, recognize game birds and mammals as a food source so that actually passed the committee with some amendments – I don’t know what the amendments are but that could strengthen protections on hunting rights in the future. I’m not too familiar with the other bills or positions. Another one – SB 2464 – noticed a lot of people were concerned with that – requiring single shot long guns for bird hunting for Mauna Kea, so, not too familiar with that area but, hunters were concerned with but, just to let you know there’s some deadlines coming up for some of these bills, basically, if a bill has two or more committees left or to have committee hearings for – th they’re gonna die on February 13 – this Thursday so like, for instance, if one bill has to still see Water & Land & Finance then, it will most likely die on Thursday, if not heard by then. AA: Abraham – District 5, Todd do you know –– do you know anything about the DLNR No Child Left inside Program? TY: Ah, shoot – these other bills I haven’t really looked through myself. AA: Yeah, I just seen it was highlighted - I just wanted to see if you’d do anything about that? TY: Yeah, it’s a – basically, trying to get kids outside of the house through recreation programs, I don’t know too much about it but it might be something for you to look at as far as hunting programs like Hunter’s Education and things like that. Yeah, along with that there’s Public Lands Day – Youth bill and some other ones you might look into. Yeah, since we’re going over that – there’s other bills of interest – there’s – well, I’ll talk about HB 1689 and its companion SB 2753 which prohibits manufacture and sale of animal and fur products that excludes taxidermy and a lot of the game mammals here in Hawaii – so I think they tailored that bill to avoid hunting issues with that one. 11 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 TN: Todd are you folks opposing or supporting? TY: That one we’re neutral on because it doesn’t really have to do with firearms but that’s just for awareness. AA: Yeah, Teresa, Abraham – District 5 – Todd’s just from the Hawaii Firearms Coalition – like he said he’s not really a hunter so, but, he’s just touching up because Tom’s not here tonight – he was supposed to be doing that hunting presentation but Tom couldn’t make it so we just asked Todd to just kinda roughly go over the legislative part of it because Todd’s really into the legislative part. TY: Yeah, Hawaii Firearms Coalition realized that a lot of hunters use firearms or things like bows and arrows that are covered under Second Amendment – so we want to promote those – so if any of these bills will sustain that in the future – we’ll support that bill. TN: Todd – Teresa in Kona – could you give us your contact number? TY: Yes, it’s – my phone number is (808) 255-3066. And my email is todd@HIFICO.org. TN: Mahalo, Thank you. TY: Is there any other bills you want me to cover, you know, either hunting related or not? I do have a little extra time. I know you’re gonna go over some – how to testify or how to get – how to testify in the legislature, I believe, was on your agenda. AA: Right, so, if you get little bit more time, yeah, you can explain to some of the people in the public of how to go on to – just roughly how they can go on the legislative website, just real roughly cause not sure if any of ‘em know... TY: Yeah, so, for anyone that’s interested in opposing or supporting any of these bills, you can do so – there’s about 60 or 70 bills on the listing that I had, ah, you can only testify for it to support or oppose when a committee hearing comes up and usually they give you about 48 to 72 hours notice and you can find that information on our website capitol.hawaii.gov – that’s our legislature website. You can punch in any of these bill numbers like HB1598 into the website – it will pop up a brief definition of what the bill does and actually the entire contents of the bill so you can read it and see what’s in it and there’s a button at the top, if it’s open for testimony you can click submit testimony on that website and you can type your message in. It could be a sentence, “I just oppose this bill.” Or you can provide your hunting experiences, how it affects you, and ah legislators want to see different points of view, you know, like the 12 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 hand gun – like the loaning firearms to another person ban – maybe it might prevent you from doing hunting/camping trips. You’re an instructor teaching a firearms class – you can put that down – that you have to borrow firearms from other people and you can’t do it if this bill passes. So put your experiences down – legislators want to hear that. You can also call their offices. On the website there’s a directory of your legislators, very important to talk to them – for example one of them was Buena Ventura, I believe she’s the legislator for the Puna District and during one of the committee hearings for the loaning of firearms bill she actually was very concerned about it because she says she’s a hunter and it would prevent people from taking hunting camping trips – so she was very concerned about that and I guess some people in her district called her about that too, earlier – to let her know. TN: Teresa from District 8– Nani our chairperson has written a support for SB 2417. She sent everyone an email so it’s in your email members. So SB 2417 Nani has already put a written support of that bill. Thank you. GD: Yeah, George – District 9 – that one recognizes game birds and mammals as a sustainable food source. AA: Yeah, so we going touch about the legislative part for us commissioners later on in that section. TY: So, just some additional tips – when you’re submitting your testimony if you run a business, club or organization – you want to put your letterhead on it because that attracts attention. Whenever a legislator sees – have a big stack of testimony – some of these bills could get like hundreds of testimonies from people – they can’t go through all of them so usually they look at government departments testimony first – like DLNR – then they look at clubs and organizations and stores – so that’s why it’s important to put your letterhead – it grabs their attention on it – you know big block letters could be STAN’S GUN STORE or HAWAII HUNTING CLUB – attracts attention, include charts, news stories, pictures in your testimony. Legislators only have a few seconds to glance over your testimonies and pictures and charts stand out to them, proposed amendments – if you oppose or support a bill you can suggest amendments that would make it better. Like for the loaning of firearms ban – you could put exception for hunting in there. Ask them to put exceptions for that. In person testimony count a lot – so, well, if you live here it’s very expensive to fly to Honolulu on short notice to attend a testimony hearing – but it affects their vote a lot when you’re looking them in the face and telling them how it affects you, so, you might want to look at hunting clubs, you know, on Oahu to provide that testimony for you – to relate your message through them, you know, talk to legislators ahead of time – educate them – they’re kind of like myself – most of them don’t hunt - they don’t know anything about hunting so you have to teach them basically and just build your relationships with clubs and stores – that’s what I’ve been doing because 13 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 clubs and stores they have a lot of customers and members – they can get your message out to a wide audience so that’s a good tip. AA: Yeah, and also there’s a bunch of fishing bills too, but, he never really touch on those... TY: It’s been about 20 years since I’ve been fishing, AA: Yeah, so, as you guys go on to the legislative website then you guys can look up the fishing – any new fishing regulations. OK. Thank you, Todd. Anybody has any questions? Yeah? Come up to the mic and state your name. RD: Ricky DeMello from Pepeekeo. Like say my son – now what if the weapon is grandfather-clause in? Has no serial number – came from my great grandfather and it’s been passed down generation after generation – now my son gonna have to get registered – I not registered because don’t own no firearms with serial numbers or not up-to-date firearms. So even for that I wouldn’t even be able for allow my son no longer for take his great, great grandfather’s gun hunting? TY: That one I’m not familiar with as far as the grandfathering... RD: Because there is a grandfather clause and if you go for register this weapons I don’t need register ‘em because there’s no serial number. TY: Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s something I’d have to research more but if you give me your contact information I can look into that for you. RD: Yeah, I know, guarantee... JO: James O’Keefe here in District 3 – I can add a little to that, that the ammunition purchase bill would probably very much affect – he wouldn’t be able to buy – you wouldn’t be able buy ammunition for that particular firearm, long guns have only been required to be registered in Hawaii since the mid- 90s – I think it was ’96 that, that became a law so any long guns owned by folks before that did not require registration. So those people who bought their – many of my guns I bought in the 70s and 80s and early 90s and there was no process for that so – hand guns – that’s always been registration so... RD: Thank you. I go stay here for my testimony... AA: Thank you Todd. So now moving back to the public testimony. RD: Mahalo again guys, mahalo nui. Richie DeMello. Pepeekeo – Makahalaloa – I could stay here all night and walaau with you guys but I know you guys get... 14 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 AA: I going give you three minutes, yeah? RD: Yes. I want to address several issues where and what’s been going on. Kapiolani School – drains connected right to Wailoa – I watched their paints from their building go straight into Wailoa. The janitors over there – the County employees that paint and wash all their stuffs goes directly into Wailoa. Wailoa all of us know that is one protected federal property and then yet they catch other people with boats and spraying all the grass and yet these employees of our own county and state claim that they was given the OK – but at the same time – how you guys can spray chemicals in one sanctuary? I mean, if it’s a protective federal sanctuary – is there any good chemicals for being here? That’s because it’s one spawning ground – this is one nursery – this is where all the baby fishes go, you know, and I don’t know what’s good about any poisons if you going look at mixing ‘em with water – aquatic – you know, they claim – cause I caught the guys red-handed, I get ‘em on film and all – and they claim that DLNR had made them do this – right? TN: Excuse me – Teresa from Kona – District 8 – have you contacted the clean water branch? RD: Yeah... TN: EPA? RD: I’m in several different battles right now – here – in Hilo. One of ‘em is with Mr. Ha – with lot of the water issues and one of the headaches that is sitting in front of you guys – for 9 years I’ve been battling alone for the stealing of the water... TN: So, yeah, but have you contacted... RD: Yes, I did. I sorry for answer your question, yeah, I did. I go through the proper channels – I go through making my own complaints – putting them all through the proper channels. TN: What have they responded to you? RD: Ah, that the poison is safe and that it’s been monitored and tested and that should be no concern of mine and I not should be yelling at their employees. TN: And this is the Department of Health or the EPA? RD: Naw, this is straight up DLNR because of the fact that the federal protects this Wailoa – they come and come around and go check on the fishermens but when I checking on them and checking on these people who spraying 15 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 poisons and chemicals I the victim – I the bad person. Lot of the organizations now – they removed their complaint letters even. So when I go to DLNR- Aquatic Division or Department of Land and Natural Resources – oh, we don’t have no complaint letters so why don’t you go online. But what if I one person guys that I don’t like you guys’ technology – what if I don’t have a computer so I like do ‘em in person... TN: So have you contacted Alec Wong? RD: Yeah. And a lot the times the table is spin back on me – in other words if I don’t leave some of these issues alone they claim that they going fine me for meddling into you guys’ business. TN: Have you contacted the Surf Rider Foundation? RD: Not that one ma’am. I haven’t with them. TN: OK. RD: But I will look into many different organizations because it seems like I had to reach out to the Sierra Club from the mainland because our DLNR here they don’t want to even help me with the issue with Ha. TN: OK. This is Teresa. We’ll look into this. RD: Mahalo nui and that is just one of the issues. And then like how deal with this issue – the young man – the gentleman that had spoken – one of the first speakers – along with the Richardson issue – not just the water’s getting affected – but our traffic is getting affected. Now we get tourist buses parking all over in front of Chewy guys’ houses – on the street – and they feel that they get the right. Why? Bringing you guys’ kala into our county and state? Sometimes in life, guys, we gotta look backwards at all the mistakes that we already had made – as one human culture – as one human beings. What we going keep on doing – going straight forward and not looking at all the repercussion and consequences already we did to ourselves? TN: Teresa, again, District 8 in Kona. Have you contacted these buses that are stopping along the residential area? Have you talked to them personally? RD: Lot of ‘em they do this to you \[makes a sign\]. \[Unclear\]... TN: No. Have you contacted them? RD: Not directly to the company itself – but as for a public transportation and the county, yeah, I did. But for the companies themselves – there’s so many nowadays that they – some of ‘em even running illegal so kinda like... 16 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 TN: Have you gotten pictures – taken – talked to them? RD: Yeah, I do... TN: OK, so, can you pass on that information to us? RD: Yes, I will. TN: Thank you. RD: Lot of ‘em I do – I do document and I get a lot of photos but lot of the times the organizations I go to – even like for this gentleman right here – just recently put in his own testimony – and his own complaint and the DLNR turn around and tell him – you want a five thousand dollar fine for putting your nose into our business? This is reality, guys. I not sitting up here in front of cameras for be talking waha, I mean, just blowing smoke up you guys’ butts. My lifestyle is not like you guys – basically my family lives almost a hundred percent off the aina. My ohana’s task here growing up was protecting our waters – that’s my family’s title – lot of the river waste – you guys even know how much rivers there’s in Hamakua? Out of 89 – 47 I walk up 47 rivers weekly checking in – who touching, who taking, what companies is where. Finance Factors just went buy 4,000 acres above Makahanaloa – the huge lake now getting tapped into. Lot of our organizations they turn ‘em blind – they turn away to it. As long has God give me ha – and grant me life you guys going keep on seeing me. GD: Donev – District 9. I’d recommend – maybe you already have done so – but to compile data into a document in even an exhaustive form. RD: All my evidence just on the Ha’s case alone – nine years now mind you guys I’ve been battling Richard Ha. I think you guys all know who is this gentleman. And you know what I get? Zero. Where is it? They just went give fine – two million dollars – no more even two months ago – lift the fine – gone. If was me, I get lo’i below – same district – same river – I try touch the water for my lo’i - DLNR came to me and told me I no can. So, I don’t know what worth well saying – you know my cousin had asked for come because he know how sincere I am and he knows my family’s job. I’m trying to protect all our river ways and waterways. Lot of these people just come – do as they please – no permits – just tap into all the rivers – all our natural resources is diminishing, you know, it’s crazy. I no chose to go to the store like you guys because I, you know, truth. If you guys doing all truth, you guys know our future is filled with GMO and filled up with all these bad products. Over 27 years my family lived off grid – twenty-seven – most of you guys no can do without you guys’ modern conveniences... 17 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 TN: Mr. DeMello would you share all of your pertinent information with us so we can compile all of these information and look into it for you? RD: Just so happen with week we meeting with one lawyer and this lawyer – we going take him all around our Island and show him – so all the palapala that I going pile up on you guys will be given to this lawyer too and then you guys will be all receiving all you guys – all the photos and all the documentaries that I’ve been doing for years now – you guys all shall get it. TN: Teresa, again, District 8 – Kona – could I be part of your round-island trip with your lawyer? RD: Why not Tita. The more the merrier because the more maka see truth – then you guys know what we’re speaking of. TN: OK. Call me. RD: Mahalo nui. Mahalo Tita. OK. Thank you guys. Aloha. AA: Yeah, just speak in it mic. DF: My name is Dean Fukuchi. I was born and raised here in Hilo, Hawaii and, I wanted to ask you folks to look at the Hilo Bay and Wailoa Pond and the Wailoa River ways in terms of a game management and try to come up with some kind of management plan over the years as I was growing up since the Sixties, the Seventies and the Eighties – I see the amount of fresh water that used to come out of Waiakea Pond – that used to flow down to the river ways and coming out to Sui San has diminished greatly. In the Sixties used to be millions of gallons used to come out there and, you know, there wasn’t even any sand, you know, where the river mouth is, you know, the thing used to be just flowing, you could see the fish going see all the rocks and everything. Today, after fifty years, maybe sixty years, the amount of water that flows out of it is diminished – you can see the wave action, you know, reversing, pushing sand in. Eventually, as less and less fresh water comes out of the Waiakea Pond area as in river ways – less would come down, more sand would come in and cut that area off. What I’m afraid of – is that the tie in between the Wailoa River, the pond and the ocean is critical for the Samoan crabs, the mullet, right, aholehole, papios that used to swim in and out of this system. So I think we need to look at that as a whole system – because eventually it’s dying and eventually we not gonna have that connection between those two water bodies and then we’re gonna lose the spawning grounds for the mullet, you know, and the Samoan crabs, you know, they go out to the ocean to lay their eggs and then they’re gonna come back up into the rivers – we’re gonna start losing all of that – that major ecosystem is dying because I think we’re taking out too much fresh water from that lens area. So that’s all I wanted to say and I ask for your help to try and get this started 18 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 because I don’t think people realize how important the connection is between the two. Thank you. AA: Thank you, Dean. TN: Teresa here in Kona. Could I ask you a question? DF: Sure... TN: Could I have your contact number please? DF: OK. AA: You don’t need to give it public, ah, I think the Jaerick... TN: Jaerick has it...OK. Share your email also. JMG: I got it... TN: And Dean have you gotten in touch with any of the water branch? DF: Water branch? TN: State water branch? DF: Ah, no... TN: Have you gotten in touch with EPA, Environmental Protection Agency... DF: EPA... TN: Department of Health, Environmental Protection Act... DF: No... TN: Have you gotten in touch with the Army Corps of Engineers... DF: Army Corps of Engineers, ah, no... TN: OK. So there are avenues that we can get in touch with and with your help we can possibly put a management plan together. DF: Sure, sure... TN: And maybe look at other management plans as to what’s happening to Waiakea Rivers, Wailoa... When the rivers overflow up Kaumana and up 19 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 Waiakea – does it flow all the way down to Wailoa area? Do you know that these rivers overflows? DF: Yeah, no, so what I’m referring to is the fresh water lens. There’s actually several spots in Waiakea Pond, I mean, they used to be huge when I was growing up in the Sixties. I mean, it was like – it’s like Ice Pond. Are you familiar with Ice Pond? TN: Yes... DF: You know in Ice Pond there’s that one area where there’s all these fresh water keeps pumping out and that’s why that area is so clean, right, and so cold. Well, there’s a couple spots in the Waiakea Pond that has the same type of open, fresh water spots – and it would just dump millions and millions of gallons of water where it would be gushing out. And that’s sort of dying out. As you draw out from the aquifer in other spots that amount of water is slowly diminishing – so I think that’s what the challenge is right now. There’s got to be a balance between the development and demand for fresh water and the need to maintain X amount of fresh water to continue to flow out of Waiakea Pond and like any fish pongs you’re gonna find one of the critical element of a sustainable fish pond is the fresh water source. You cannot just have all salt water. You going need that fresh water source to come into the fish pond to revitalize and stimulate certain growths and one of them is limu, right? You know the brown moss that – you go to the ice pond you see ‘em a lot because of the fresh water and then the cold temperature and so that’s why it’s critical to have fresh water – it’s because of the temperature, the clarity of the water and it allows the limu eleele – the brown moss limu to grow and that brings – helps feed the mullet and some other species. So I think... TN: When the bay area floods do you think because the fresh water isn’t flowing out... DF: No. No, no, no. OK, so that phenomenom is called surface flow. So what happens is that... AA: Excuse me, um, that’s kind of like off topic so... DF: Yes, yes... AA: We need to get going... Yeah, you and Teresa can have that conversation when... DF: Sure, sure, no problem, no problem... AA: talk to each other. 20 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 DF: OK. Thank you. AA: Any other questions? TN: Thank you. a. Pepeekeo Shoreline Fishing Association, Chairman Jaerick Medeiros- Garcia, presentation on river, stream, and coastal issues related to fishing AA: Any other comments from the public? OK. Moving on to our second presenter which was supposed to be our first one – is Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia from Pepeekeo Shoreline Fishing Association. JMG: Mahalo, everyone. Thank you everybody for coming, participating in GMAC. Thank you, GMAC commissioners for having us and listening to us. Yeah, so I am the chairman for Pepeekeo – Makahanaloa – I’m Jaerick Medeiros- Garcia – I got to say we got the most issues right now out there in Pepeekeo – off of Pepeekeo Point and all that stuff. We created this fishing association because we were allowed to make an agreeing contract with the developer – Continental Pacific – who had developed the gated community down there next to Hu Honua, both sides of Hu Honua we have shoreline access. One side is gated so they give me a gate along Railroad, which is when you going down Sugar Mill Road you make a left at the old warehouse where they used to work on the cane trucks – you go all the way down to the banyan tree, make a right, there’s a huge gate there that I manage with a lock and my fishing association – most of the members is from within the community and adjacent communities. I have extended it out to the adjacent communities recently because the fact that Kolekole and Hakalau is not open. The fishermen that wants to go down there and fish they’re not being given access to it. So even though our contract states that the fishing association agreement is only for people from Pepeekeo – I have gone out on my own way to allow these guys because they don’t have access to the shoreline and so at this point I’m in the process of sitting down with Continental Pacific and re-doing the contract because we had extended it out to adjacent communities because a lot of them – fishermen from the country – they really depend on the shoreline to feed their families and if I could help in any way that would probably be the best way I could help them to go to one place that is secured – taken cared of – I probably got just about a little over 100 members now in our fishing association and at the same time probably about three years ago the fishing management program that I had created three years ago it started to work, you know, because I’ve been working on it hard since 2013 – once I seen bills at the legislation level trying to be introduced and passed into laws to where DLNR and entities to the state try to come in and say they going do research – they going gather data – next thing you know you end up like Hualalai where the shoreline is closed for ten years. Not 21 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 because of the fishing problems – it’s because the people with the money don’t want to see the local fishermen in front of their homes, you know, so I got – I kicked myself into gear and I started attending all these fishing meetings to see what kind of data they’ve been gathering and stuff like that and these meetings weren’t meetings where you could ask questions – right, Auntie Teresa? Aw... TN: Yes, you’re right... JMG: We both... Yeah... TN: Yes, you’re right, this is Teresa. JMG: This is where I first met Teresa and we spoke there and they weren’t there to answer our questions but they were there to gather data like our names, who came to the meetings, and the questions that we were trying to ask – they wanted us to write it down to make it look like that they were gathering data, yeah, and so I had no part in that. Once me and Teresa spoke at that meeting on the way out I took the sign-up sheet, right, because without the names nobody was at that meeting, right, so, I did the same thing the next night over in Hilo because it was just a scam, right, these guys not there for gather data – when we went ask the question – what kind of fish swim at night – they didn’t have an answer – so that tell me that they’re investigating and their research gathering really didn’t include 24 hours of looking into one fishing area. It was all about doing it daytime, you know, and a lot of shoreline fish – night time fish – has a lot to do with maintaining the shoreline, you know, so the fishermen didn’t understand what I was trying to do when I tried to create this management plan and a management plan was put into gear and they were kind of mad because I was asking them for the information on what happens on their fishing trip, yeah? On the shoreline and they didn’t want to give that information but when I explained to them why we gotta do this and today – they more than happy to log it down. Why? Because we really had eliminate DLNR from coming on our shoreline. We that’s in a gated community and before really making a move on this, ah, I went to DLNR to ask them for help to help me talk to the squatters that was living on the shoreline in Pepeekeo, and, their response to me was that’s not our jurisdiction – you’re on your own. And I said, oh, you know, oh, makes sense, it is the county shoreline – so I held them to their word and now when they call me for the combination to get on the shoreline through my gate – that’s not their jurisdiction. You guys want to get out there? There’s an easier way to do it – go back to Hilo – jump on your jet ski drive around and do not pass the high tide mark – leaving my fishermen happy on the shoreline – \[unclear\] open the coolers for anybody over – but they all do practice kapu aloha – they all do practice aloha aina – malama aina – they all do that because it’s working, yeah? We monitor who’s there – if you have a vehicle – you normally get a sticker as a fisherman so that the community know that you’re part of 22 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 the fishing association – that comes with rules, yeah, and so it’s been working and there was a few other communities down Laupahoehoe, Paauilo, that reached out to me and I helping them trying to build their game management plan and how they should be open to the community members to be a part of whatever decisions like Kam School down in Paauilo on the shoreline – they reached out to me – we working on that and it’s working fine for them now, you know, as long as they include the community who depends on the i’a from the ocean for their families – now it seems to be working. So for us it’s been successful – it was hard work for me at first but if I don’t do ‘em who’s gonna do it, you know, and along the way I was able to gain more people to understand and even do more malama aina and for the people who live on the shoreline that thought they owned the shoreline – we made it clear to them that their deeds indicate that they do not own the shoreline, you know, going to Planning, talking to Alex Roy – who is the shoreline guy – he shared all – whatever part of the Island you live – he’s got the shoreline information on the proper ways to go about things so... Sharing that with my community and adjacent communities has been very good for us and for everybody. AA: What’s his name again? JMG: Alex Roy from Planning. He is the – before was – Bethany Miller, I guess, something like that – but now it’s Alex Roy and he’s a really nice guy – he also resides Papaikou and I work with the Papaikou Association there – they come out and they fish because you got the one lady that don’t want nobody down the old mill, right, she owns ‘em and they even closed the Pinky’s Road once - one week out of the year – cause she don’t want nobody to go down her easement. So, you know, there’s a lot of things that I look into – we watch – now that we have six cruise ships coming into our docks every week, you know, it seems to me that this tourism industry – which I came from – worked at the hotel for a long time, you know, I lived off tourism, right, I’m a bellman – but it seems to me that with out – I don’t know who accept these guys to come in – more ships – I don’t know whose plan is that – I don’t know if it’s the county or the state – but what’s happening now is because these cruise ships are coming and our bay front is not that deep – they’re emptying their waste outside so from what I heard it should be ten miles out of dock but ten miles out of dock puts you right in front of Pepeekeo, yeah, it should be ten miles from land to – but I don’t know who to go – I don’t know where do we even start to even look into this on trying to get them to dump their waste ten miles away from land because we’re finding that the water smells like the purple water in the out house – the toilet paper is showing up on the shorelines – they’re dumping it out there – right out there in Pepeekeo and, ah, the fishermen can smell that purple fluid that they put in the outhouse, yeah, so the only probably really good thing, you know, out there is you know got to put sun block – you just jump in the water it come out all oiled up already – but other than that, um, we don’t know, I don’t know if we try and include Mark Nakashima who is the, you know, state representative for 23 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 Hamakua, to see what they can do at the legislative level because really we don’t know where to turn, I mean, plus too with the water – with the river ways being illegally diverted – we don’t have enough pressure to take it out, you know, lucky we had this big water this last few weeks because that literally had cleaned our beaches out, you know, and not to mention Bay Front has the highest staff levels in the nation due to illegal diversions from our river so hopefully that big water went take majority of the, you know, staff – send it out – get rid of ‘em – maybe it cleaned it out – I hope so – but that’s dangerous because there’s so many different types of staff, you know, it’s even deadly to some point but, yeah, at the next meeting I’ll probably present facts that I tried to get before coming to this presentation but my shoreline fishing association meeting is not till March 1 where we can get the data and share with you guys – what kind fish are being caught – what we got data – maybe one count of opihi and aama crab because it is working – it is working, you know, one of the main things that I ask of the fishermen is when you leave if you go for opihis – don’t forget the next person – it’s not there to rape – try and throw back a sandwich bag of opihis somewhere else along the shoreline so we know they’ll grow there somewhere else, you know, along with the aama crab – same thing – and always try to make sure that these guys are aware of – you catch only what is in season, yeah, because back in the day – kapu aloha – you catch the fish that is not in season – punishable by death – but in my association the punishment will be you won’t be able for drive on the shoreline to go holoholo. You can go holoholo but you gonna have to walk long ways in with your equipment, you know, which most guys no like do, so that’s what I do out there at Pepeekeo and any questions? TN: Teresa – District 8 – Kona. I looked it up and it says pollutants stem from marine debris, sewage vessels – Department of Health – Clean Water Branch - have you gotten in touch with them. JMG: Yeah, but they haven’t gotten back in touch with me. TN: OK. So there was a tank vessel operator found guilty for illegal dumping of their bilge so if it is an illegal dump it’s something we can write and complain about but we need to – so if you have proof then – would you share it with us? JMG: OK, yeah, we definitely can. TN: Thank you Jearick... JMG: Thank you Auntie. AA: Any other questions? Good. Thank you. I’d just like to say – thank you for all your work you’re doing out there, you know, you \[unclear\] you never has that much members and now you getting more and more and you’re bringing 24 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 people – you’re letting the word out more – so you helping us out too, Jaerick, so, you know, as much as we can we try to help you too... JMG: Thank you, I appreciate you guys giving us the opportunity. AA: Since I been on this commission almost a year now – not yet, ah? So I’m still a rookie – I still learning how this whole process – so with that – you getting the word out and that was one of the main things from way back when is how to get more people from the public to come and bring their concerns so we know what to do – where to take it or whatever. JMG: Everywhere I go... AA: Good job. Keep it going.. JMG: ....I try to talk about GMAC because game management is the key to self- sustainability and, ah, you know, plenty people interested in that but they didn’t know about this... AA: Yeah, lot of people, yeah, I agree with you. A lot of people just what is... TN: Teresa, again – District 8, um Jaerick, could you talk about the Westpac Meeting that you had gone to that they had concerns about our marine species. JMG: Yeah, I just went a few days ago over to Sally’s Luau House and there was a small boat meeting there with the Westpac, a lot of fishermen spoke about the ahi size, you know, a few, lot of guys catching 3 lbs ahis’ and, you know, not giving them the time to grow to get bigger for the market, yeah, because you really can’t sell 3 pound ahis’ in the market, you know that kind stuff.... AA: Yeah, so they selling them on the side of the road... JMG: Yeah, so, you know, should have some kind of, well, at least to make it bigger, you know – maybe a five pound limit or something, you know what I mean, but also we got to become self-sustainable and if we allow these guys – cause you know what like I going be honest with you guys – DLNR does not do anything for us, you know, um, in the past few months we’ve – did walk from Pepeekeo to Keaukaha – we did find 19 dead turtles – 17 cross nets. We confiscated four shockers for the rivers, you know, these are the things that not us supposed to be doing, you know, like cousin Rickie said – the rivers are being illegally diverted and, um, what I do is before going up the rivers I usually just go on Google Earth, I get the name of the stream – I call CWRM Honolulu, DLNR to see if there’s any permits allowed for that river – for any diversion and they tell me no, that we’re breaking and busting everything that is not, you know. Shouldn’t be – the water must flow because 25 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 it’s the most important thing for our river banks, you know, we got water bee (sp?) we got bamboo shoots, we got avocados, whatever it might be, you know, and this is to make sure that our resources is being able to live, I mean, in my river, the river that Richard Ha is diverting, the resources is depleted. The opae’s is gone. Prawns is gone. The crayfish – prawns and crayfish you might see a few but we don’t want to catch ‘em cause we hoping they going migrate, you know, I like teach my kids how for gather but how can I do that if there’s no resources and that’s why me and cousin Ricky is paying attention to the waterways, you know ,but yeah... AA: Thank you... JMG: Thank you. c. Hawai’i Hunting Association, Tom Lodge, How firearm bills may adversely affect hunters. Tom was not able to attend meeting. 6. OLD BUSINESS: a. Discussion of the DOFAW presentation of game bird population statistics, and how we can encourage an investigation into the cause of game bird population decline. AA: Any discussion? None. 7: NEW BUSINESS: a. Commissioner brainstorming session on how we may best gather support/opposition with GMAC related bills in the Legislature LL: Louisa Lee – I’m from Hilo. So I mostly want to talk about new business a. and b. So the first is kind of a question. Where would the general public go to which bills GMAC is supporting or opposed to and I guess more importantly How can we – besides this meeting – these forums – how can we influence whether you’re supporting or opposing – we talk to the person in our district? AA: When it comes to that part I’ll hit that when it comes to the committee report – so you can move on to your next one. LL: OK. So the second one is related to b. My kind of area of interest and my biggest concern is that I don’t feel like there’s enough community and public participation in these meetings and so I’m primarily here to talk about a few strategies for getting more community feedback. So number one – it’s very, very hard to kind of figure out when these meetings are. If I go onto the 26 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 County calendar specifically for today it says no events for February. So this is not even online. So that’s concern number one – on the county calendar and number two it’s challenging for people, I know, I have three kids, I have a full time job – I’m sure for you guys too this is a volunteer position – it’s very difficult to get here to find the time when everybody can be here especially so on the week night when we really want to be home – not so much doing homework and cooking dinner but taking care of our children. I think that often times we forget that participating in these events is a luxury that a lot of people don’t have and so we really need to find ways to get this information and get community feedback at places where your community is so I would really like to recommend that perhaps with the help of Roy we hook up with the Council Members in each district and find out what community association meetings are active – whether it’s Jaerick’s, whether it’s Keaukaha Community Association \[unclear\], Leleiwi Community Association and then provide some of the information or some of bills at those kind of community meetings and really use those community meetings to do the outreach for you, right, so rather than this group doing the outreach using the community associations to do the outreach and actually get people there to provide feedback – so they could then provide the feedback. Often times people don’t necessarily feel like they have a place to sit at the table but they’re a lot more comfortable talking amongst their neighbors and amongst their peers and so that’s also a great way to collect data that can be kinda fed back to the work that you guys are doing. Thank you. AA: Any questions or comments? Say, Mark? Nora? So to that question – how come – or maybe Donna – one of you, I guess, how come the meeting’s not posted. DUH: It is posted. It’s on the web and it’s posted. TN: Abraham, Teresa – District 8 – could I speak to Lucy. Is that her name? AA: Louisa. TN: Louisa. Hi Louisa, Teresa – District 8. If you could you could leave us your contact number – how to get a hold of you and your email address – we can have Donna send you our notices directly and you can help us to have the community engage with us. LL: Thank you. TN: Would that be possible? LL: Yeah. My phone number is on the sign in but I can be by email. TN: That would be great. Thank you so much Louisa. 27 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 AA: As far as the going out to the community meetings – that’s something that, you know, I think we talked about before but it – not for make excuses or whatever – but it is – but, you know, this is still one voluntary thing so for find time and even like how do we know when each community meeting is also – I mean we’d have to – I just going speak for myself – I would have to go out and go to my community and see what community event is going on, yeah. TN: Abraham – ask her to go to the mic so we can hear. This is Teresa – District 8. LL: So what I was saying was that our council members are a good place to kind of get that information. So I can’t speak for all community members but I know that in Keaukaha and at Leleiwi Community Association Sue Lee Loy – who’s our council member – either makes an appearance or sends Peter to those meetings so they’re well aware of when those meetings are taking place and I totally understand that you guys necessarily can’t come to those meetings but perhaps Peter or Sue can provide... AA: Voice our opinion or support or... LL: Right, or kind of let the community know what’s happening. I know definitely in a community like Keaukaha coastal issues are really, really important and so that’s directly kind of related to the work that you guys do, so... AA: I think that was it... Yeah... LL: OK... TN: Louisa – Teresa – District 8 – is Kean – representing District 2 – is Keaukaha in District 2? AA: No that’s 3... TN: Three... AA: Keaukaha is District 3. Yeah. That’s O’Keefe’s one and his term is up. TN: So Louisa – if you have anybody in your committee that would like to apply for a GMAC position that would be terrific. Would you go online and have someone fill in the application to be part of our GMAC Commission. LL: I think that’s great information to share with community associations when these positions become available – that’s really important information. 28 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 TN: Yeah, so, the position is available now so if you have someone that could go online and fill up the application online and they would be considered along with the information they give to be part of the GMAC Commission – because we now have a vacancy in your district. LL: So do vacancies, its open – it’s rolling until someone is filled or there’s a specific – it’s always in January – how does this work? AA: Malia would you like to touch on that...? MH: Basically, most terms expire in December and then they have like a three month – so, yeah, most of the vacancies will pop up – some of the commissions are a little bit different – they’re a little off – but this one is usually January is when they’ll be opening up. Yeah. JO: And – this is O’Keefe – District 3 – they’re putting me out to pasture so... AA: Can’t run again, basically... LL: The terms are one year? JO: No. They vary depending upon the appointment. AA: They vary... MH: They’re five years... JO: Five years... Yes, yeah... LL: OK. GD: George – District 9 – a note on that. It’s really easy to apply. You can put a sentence in the application and so... Anyone can apply – I’m speaking from personal experience so – encourage others to apply to do so... LL: OK. Thank you. AA. And as far as notifications for the meeting – please sign the sheet as you guys leave – leave you guys’ email address – at least your email address and Donna sends out the email – a couple weeks ahead it’s supposed to be, yeah? Or days... MH: At least 6 days before the meeting. AA: Yeah, so... 29 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 MH: At the latest. AA: I always got the emails even before I was a commissioner so the email \[unclear\] it works – so if you guys like keep up with what’s going on sign up on the sheet. LL: Thank you. b. County Managing Director, Roy Takemoto will be working with us to promote GMAC, and plan public outreach and educational opportunities RT: Hi. Roy Takemoto, Managing Director, I’m here this evening after a meeting with two of your members, Nani and Grayson, who met with us to go over some of the legislative bills that they providing testimony and in that Meeting, it made me appreciate what you guys are doing in terms of preserving the lifestyle of this Island, and also to appreciate – I know there’s a Game Management Commission at the state level. But the value of your type of commission at the county level – particularly for our county to be advocates for the unique lifestyle of the neighbor islands and I know that there’s a lot of conflict between the values of the hunters and fishermen versus say environmentalists and I think a lot of that can be mitigated with public education on what you guys stand for and to present that information in a way that Nani and Grayson were explaining to me, for example, showing how hunting complements the preservation of endangered species, also how hunting can help with wild fire management. Those kind of connections are not out there to the general public – it may be but like even for me that was kind of new information so given all of that, what we can offer through the various departments in the county to help support you folks is as much as you folks want to – interested – to put together these thoughts in a way that provides the data that supports what you folks are doing and to compile maybe the issues and concerns – but going beyond that with your proposed strategies – solutions, so what I have on the slide here is this compilation can be in a form of a strategic plan or whatever you want to call it but to help you folks think through whether or not you want to proceed along these lines. These are some of the questions that a plan such as this can address like,- is part of your concerns there’s inadequate public hunting areas – is public access to these areas adequate for you folks, how do you improve, for lack of a better word, your – the game management practices of those who are in charge like DLNR and how you can interface with them in a more effective way – so some of the outcomes of such a plan can be policy changes that you’d like to see within DLNR itself or whether it requires changes to our laws, We can do maps that identify the specific areas that you would like public access improved but beyond that to be part of the solution, you know, what, whenever we create a new public access – there’s always the concern from outside – the county side – on who’s gonna maintain it – so that’s where partnerships can be developed with community people – people like you who 30 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 are users of these areas and access ways to help us maintain it and not put all the expectation and responsibility on just the county, and such a plan can also help educate the public to better support you, and one of the ideas that we can throw out there for a forum to educate the public is we’re looking into a pilot farmers’ market on the Bay Front where we’re gonna try and promote just local grown or made only kind of products, and you folks can have a booth – the GMAC – there to sell or pass out your smoked meat or whatever but have brochures on what you do and just talk to people, you know, tell ‘em what you guys doing – what you stand for, and there a lot of information and I can show you maps – I have it here – but there’s a lot of information that can be a starting point already – there’s lot of – there’s maps on existing trails and public access. There’s maps on existing public hunting areas, there’s maps on wild fire risk zones, there’s maps that identify the natural reserves restricted watersheds and all the streams and all those kind of stuff so there’s lot of this that we can just work with you – with maps such as these – with all these kind of data layers and we can just brainstorm on putting together this information in a way that presents the strategies that you folks would like to pursue. JO: James O’Keefe here – District 3. Are these maps available on line – is this ARC GIS, is it a format that we have access to? AA: Or the public... RT: It’s ARC GIS and the Planning Department provides a disk where there’s a free reader and you can click on and off these different layers that come under this or you can zoom in, zoom out – we can get that disk for the members here... JO: OK. So it’s a free reader then that we could use – excellent. MH: I think the state site also has a lot... JO: Yeah. RT: like if you go to the state GIS maps you can get a lot of those maps. JO: Thank you. AA: Any other comments, questions? Is Kona still on line? TN: Yeah, Teresa. Thank you Roy for putting this together for us. Nora, could I have a copy of what was part of his PowerPoint because we couldn’t see it from here. AA: She said yes... OK. Thank you, Roy. Thank you very much. 31 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 8: COMMITTEE REPORTS AA: Committee Reports – I guess you go next. MH: Abraham – sorry – can I just touch on one of the other things she said about like what we support and stuff... AA: Go ahead... MH: Also on the legislature website if you want – if there’s some issues that are important to you – so like you can go in there and put a key word like “fishing” or “coastline” or anything like that and basically it’ll pop up all the bills that have that term in it. Um, and then, you know, with this, a lot of it is game mammals, you know, if you look up that – that’s kind of what this committee is gonna be looking at but you can really personalize it to what you believe in and then you can see when the testimony needs to be happening and stuff like that – so I think that’s kind of an easier way to do it than looking at just the bills – cause it’s real specialized here, you know, it’s like four or five there cause they’re really kind of picking and choosing what battles to fight, but if you’re interested in all coastline stuff or whatever, want to make sure that your voice is heard for those so that might be the easier way to do it. ?: \[Not speaking in mic\] MH: Yeah. ?: \[Not speaking in mic\] AA: Yeah. ?: \[Not speaking in mic\] MH: Oh, yeah, I guess you would then email... AA: Email or come back to the meeting and let us know. MH: Get one of their emails or, yeah, or come in to the meeting and speak to us or Sue and she can get in touch with us too, so... That always works as well... AA: So basically, Malia just touched up a little bit more on the legislative part that I was gonna brush up on – like she said – go on the website – sign up in – punch into whatever you’re searching up and it’s gonna pop up. And then you can – once you find the law that you’re looking for it’s gonna give you a whole bunch of information that you can read about it and you can support or 32 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 deny – oppose yourself – depends on your own feelings. As far as one of the bills – that’s why I’m Chair tonight because Nani, our Chair, her and Grayson – which is our other representative for Ka’u is in Oahu and they went to support SB 2417 and it passed the position it was in so now it moved forward – it has some minor amendments but it’s heading to the Ways & Means and I think after that one – might have – might be law, right? JO: They have to be passed by both Houses in identical form – so the crossover – the bills crossover again one more time... ?: Yeah... JO: And so it would have to go before the House after it passes the Senate committees and then the senate – the whole senate – back over to the House for consideration there. AA: But as of right now it’s moving forward. If you go onto the Legislative site and you look up these bills and it’s gonna tell you what status it’s in and it’s also gonna ask you for testimony or, it’s gonna ask you for that testimony \[unclear\] – but it’s basically, when you go on ‘em you gotta read ‘em and then you going see the status and then they going say when the next hearing is and then you gotta be on that day because things happen in that area very quickly. So if you guys interested in that you guys got to be on it pretty much. OK, so, moving forward...Commissioner Reports by district. 9. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT: JO: None here... AA: As for me – I give one commission report. I’ve been working with Forestry to DLNR for like the last year – on the side – Volcano Transfer Station – they revamped it – made it so they say better – but they fenced off the whole thing and they brought these big boulders – you go drive around the transfer station and you could access the forest behind and when they upgraded the transfer station there they fenced off the whole thing and they brought boulders right up to the road – so for hunters and that’s one dog area, right, so how you going get – let your dogs out – or even if you tie ‘em up and they get lose or you’re going – you coming back they get chance they going run on the road so I’ve been working with them for the last year and they finally went move the rocks last week – the boulders, so... You know the state and county how quick they work so that process took a year just about. Um, so a little better but I wish they moved a little more in but, eh, you gotta get what you can but I still going push little bit more and see what else can do up there. Other than that – that’s all I got – so next meeting – for those interested – March 31, 33 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 11, 2020 2020. \[Corrected date\] 6:30p – see you guys here and I call for adjournment. Anybody move to adjourn? 10. ADJOURNMENT: Action: J. O’Keefe moved to adjourn. Seconded by T, Nakama. Motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted by, Donna Urban-Higuchi Secretary ATTEST: Naniloa Pogline 34