Hawaii Ocean News has begun a new video series with an inaugural video entitled "S O S".   

This is a video about the realities of our Public Harbor System in Hawaii: the crime, the drugs, the pollution, and the crumbling infrastructure.  Not recommended for those of you who are allergic to discourse that is not politically correct.  This is a four-minute straight-talker that reveals what we least want to admit: that our public harbor system in the State of Hawaii is in serious trouble. 

Raw Sewerage

The video opens with shots of the raw sewerage and flotsam that ended up in the Ala Wai Small Boat harbor this past winter and spring.  Six million gallons of raw human sewerage, some of which ended up in living rooms in Kaneohe before finding a home in Kaneohe Bay, Mamala Bay and Kailua Bay.  The Ala Wai small boat harbor which is in the heart of Hawaii's tourist mecca, was the major recipient of this effluence.  Heeia Kea small boat harbor, in Kaneohe Bay, most certainly had very high coliform counts as well. 

Drugs and Crime

In the video we see a drug addict (on a boat that housed many) that fell in the water under the influence.  The water quality at that time?  Raw sewerage and flotsam from a recent heavy rain turned the water a reddish brown, full of plastics and other effluence . . . and pooh.

The woman spent more than twenty minutes in the water, sometimes over her head, while someone attempted to rescue her.  She was eventually rescued by a passing good Samaritan, but not after having been exposed to deadly superbug-infested sewerage.  We don't know what her fate was, but there has been at least one death from a flesh eating bacterial infection, and countless reports of MRSA by bathers in the Waikiki area. 

The DLNR: The Failed Solution?

In the video we see expensive security gates locked open ("for years"), crumbling docks that await repairs or replacement after years of languishing, the incredible lack of sewerage pump-out facilities for the one thousand boat marina nearby, no fuel docks, no nearby repair facilities and a paperwork logjam within the DLNR that would make the IRS cringe.  The processes and system with which the DLNR attempts to allocate slips uses antiquated technology (DLNR's Chair, Suzanne Case, apparently doesn't even have an email address!) and locks legitimate boaters wanting slips out of the system for years on end.  The State Legislators are asleep at the wheel and seem to have little clue as to how this crisis affects the image of the State of Hawaii, and the safety of its residents and tourists.  

Speaking of State Legislators: ironically,  right after an atrocious showing as DLNR Chair, Laura Thielen managed to get herself elected to the Hawaii State Legislature.  Are we really this gullible that we elect individuals with poor track records to such important public offices?   Voting is a good thing!  Voting for candidates with sketchy performance records . . . not so much.

Conclusion

"S O S"  is at once painful to watch and theraputic because it pulls no punches.   Now the hard part: doing something about this mess.