Laserfiche WebLink
there’s quite a few other safety concerns that should be addressed in there but at a high level <br />there’s just not enough data to support the idea that there’s such a big safety risk that we <br />should be shutting down local tour operators, forcing layoffs and causing the kind of impact that <br />this would have on the community, thank you. <br /> <br />AA: Thank you, Tom. Next we got Teri Leicher. Teri Leicher? OK. Last one moving to Byron Kay. <br /> <br />BK: Aloha, I’m Byron (Kay) with Honu Divers and Kona Snorkel Trips. We run the manta ray tours – <br />we’ve been doing it for 20 years now and, I’d just like add – thank you, Tom, for some of those <br />points – you had some of the great points there and, I would just like to make some comments <br />on your guys’ comments here. You know there’s a permitting system being proposed here for <br />the manta ray and as far as deciding who gets the permits, um, I think the way that the permits <br />are planned to be rolled there could be a lot of not necessarily – they wouldn’t be rolled out in <br />maybe the most fair way where – they’re supposed to – a proposed lottery system and, the way <br />that the lottery system works is anybody who’s had a permit for longer than 4 years could <br />potentially get a permit – the problem is there might be operators that have been doing this for <br />30, 40 years, ah, like we’ve been doing it for 20 years, though the permit or who gets a permit, <br />um, it’s not based on longevity of whose been doing the tour – it’s just based on a random <br />lottery system so that doesn’t quite seem right, sit right with me, ah, the customer to guide ratio <br />I really do - I like that, I support that – I think it’s great to have a customer to guide ration – my <br />companies have a eight – the one customer guide ratio – ten to one is where you start to end up <br />pushing it, um, is this something that the government should be enforcing or is this something <br />where it’s up to the individual operator to decide what is safe and, how much liability they’re <br />willing to take on – that’s something that we should ask ourselves, are we really gonna prohibit <br />operators from acting in their own best interests or at least, ah, curtail them? One issue with <br />that is that if they do have too many snorkelers per guide, if one of the snorkelers have an issue <br />or multiple snorkelers have an issue then the other guides from the other operators maybe <br />might have to come in and assist and help that operator – the guide from that operator, um, so <br />it’s a matter of personal responsibility and how much responsibility somebody wants to take on <br />so, though, I do support the ratio, um, the vessel lighting and propeller guards: vessel lighting, <br />um, if you’re following the manta ray rules that Keller Laros helped establish, essentially boats <br />shouldn’t be using vessel lighting so that’s a really great idea because it prevents the mantas <br />from getting injured and we really, we want to try to prevent that. As far as propeller guards are <br />concerned, I have prop guards on one of my boats, probably one of the only boats in existence <br />that have them – but some boats – they don’t easily, you can’t easily put a cage around the <br />propeller, it’s very difficult to enact and really by creating a zone where the vessels are forced to <br />slow down… \[Noise\] Am I out of time? <br /> <br />AA: Yup. <br /> <br />TY: Thank you. <br /> <br />AA: Teri Leicher? <br /> <br />SW: One second… <br /> <br />32 <br /> <br /> <br />