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TL: Hi. OK. Sorry, I was muted before and I couldn’t get out of it. I’m Teri Leicher and I was raised <br />here in Hawaii. I have been part of Jack’s Diving Locker primarily as a managing partner since <br />1981. We started out with 5 sets of gear and a Volkswagen van and we’ve got children and <br />grandchildren who were born and raised here, um, so it’s a family operation. We also have <br />another family – the Laros family – works with us. First of all, I did my first dive off of what was <br />the Kona Surf back in 1983 and that was with the manta or not my first dive but my first dive <br />with the mantas in 1983 and then, um, it started getting to be very popular. We have probably <br />three boats going there and so we decided that with 3 boats going there it was getting kind of <br />busy and we in 1990 got together with Patty Project Aware and came up with the guidelines for <br />diving and snorkeling with manta rays. In 2012 it started getting really crazy – there were like 20 <br />boats going to the two different sites and there were now two different sites and so we went to <br />DOBOR and started asking for help because we had gentlemen’s agreements and we had our <br />guidelines but everybody had their own idea of how to do things and so we went to DOBOR and <br />said, you know, we think we need some help with this and, you know, they, we thought maybe <br />we should create an ORMA or do something so we could have a little bit stricter guidelines, ah, <br />because there was always somebody that kind of wanted to do their own thing and not really <br />care about the other people around so, um, we just wanted to have some sort of consistency, <br />um, we now have that happening here and I want to say that I agree with Byron from Kona <br />Honu and with some ideas that he has we do support a management plan – they using moorings <br />actually protect the reef – that was the reason why they were put there to protect the coral – <br />the way that we will be installing new ones, I mean, there are a lot of ideas – they’re not <br />necessarily the greatest ideas, but I think DOBOR right not is trying to do the best they can and I <br />would hope that they would work with us as the experts who’ve been doing this from very long <br />time to try to come up with a slightly better management plan but we definitely support some <br />sort of management and I’m available for questions too. We have a long history there. Thank <br />you. <br /> <br />AA: Thank you, Teri. <br /> <br />RD: I’ve got one question for the last speaker. Are you saying that you’re a contractor to DOBOR? <br /> <br />TL: We operate as a dive operation. We have become – we started with 5 sets of gear and <br />Volkswagen van but we did become one of the larger ones and we started – not Jack’s Diving <br />Locker – but via Malama Kai Foundation along with my dad back in the 1980s, ah, the Dave’s <br />Mooring program and that was put out there solely – and it’s statewide now – but that’s to <br />protect the reef from anchor damage, ah, having moorings in certain locations so boats can tie <br />off to ‘em – any boat – commercial or non and not damage the coral reef. <br /> <br />RD: Yeah, my question \[unclear\]? <br /> <br />TL: Right now, currently, Jack’s Diving Locker does have a contract to put in the moorings that <br />DOBOR would like to put in because it’s something that we’ve been doing for a long time and <br />we’ve decided to bid on it because the original bid we felt was not going – the plan – we wanted <br />to make it safer. <br /> <br />RD: Thank you, Teri. <br /> <br />AA: Thank you, Teri. Ah, Natalie you want to continue on with your committee report? <br />33 <br /> <br /> <br />