Commercial Permits on Maui (split off from Premier Scuba Maui)

[friscuba]

My comment was in response to someone I view as having an abundance of sour grapes, the type which is only good for making whine.

Sorry, I read it otherwise. Have fun on your trip!

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

I know when I go to a doctor, I try to find one that isn't insured, it's even better if his degree is from somewhere in the Carribean.

When I go to restaurants, I look for one's with unlicensed kitchens and staff without food handlers certificates.

Diving off a boat with a commercial permit, commercial passenger registration or a licensed Coast Guard Captain on board at all times... screw that! I want unpermitted and underinsured when I'm paying for a good time!

WTH has this to do with any of the commercial permitting BS going on on MAUI. Last time I checked the USCG can give out UNLIMITED permits as long as the vessel meets the required standards, same with restaurants. What MAUI County is doig is equivilant to saying "hey, we have 7 permits for restaurants...safe or not....come and get them...well actually if your borther's uncle's mother knows someone here then you can have one...otherwise go screw yourself".....

Do you see the difference? One has to do with safety for the public, the other limits COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.

 

[friscuba]

WTH has this to do with any of the commercial permitting BS going on on MAUI. .

I'm not in favor of arbitrary limits, I was responding to something I read differently. The situation that's brewing in Maui on permit restrictions is not good.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

copy that.simple misundertstanding. I promise next time I will try to spell check my posts too

 

[DiveMaven]

As for the excuse that the beach parks are over-crowded... let's just say that somehow that's changing. This weekend at Ulua, there were plenty of spots to park even as late as 8:30/9:00. In fact, every time I went back to my car (before/between/after dives), there were several spots immediately available. For a Saturday/Sunday combination with excellent weather both underwater an on the beach, this was amazing.

With tourism down 22% on Maui for the month of July (high season), that would likely account for the uncrowded beaches. I know when we're coming to Maui at Christmas, airfare is now literally double what it was when I bought our tickets in February. And when I last checked available seats on our flights (a couple of weeks ago), there were nearly 100 available, which is totally out of the ordinary.

With the rising prices and slowing ecomony, it could definitely get much uglier for Hawaii....

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Last time I checked the USCG can give out UNLIMITED permits as long as the vessel meets the required standards, same with restaurants. What MAUI County is doig is equivilant to saying "hey, we have 7 permits for restaurants...safe or not....come and get them...well actually if your borther's uncle's mother knows someone here then you can have one...otherwise go screw yourself".....

Do you see the difference? One has to do with safety for the public, the other limits COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.

With regard to Molokini, commercial activity is limited and regulated because prior to the limits and regulations the marine life was in a severe state of decline. Snorkel operators would throw out loaves of bread, dozens of bagels, give guests packs of frozen peas and corn; so the tourists would be surrounded by the pretty fishes. After years of similar activity, fish numbers were way down, and algae growth was significantly smothering the coral. Duuhh; fish full of bread didn't do their job of eating the algae and fish with ice cubes in their guts didn't live long.

Dive guides were pulling octopus out from under fragile coral heads, everyone was collecting shells (even live ones), anchors were dropped all over the reef, only a couple dive ops cared about proper buoyancy. Not to mention drift dives getting blown off the crater in questionable conditions with only the captain on board and dive charter boats where the captain was also a guide sometimes returning to a loose boat smashed on the rocks. At least one group spent the night on Molokini in wet suits, IIRC.

You may call it a free market but I call it greedy madness.

Molokini crater, located just over two miles off Maui’s south coast is designated a State Marine Life and Bird Conservation District. In addition to the high resource quality of this area, its crescent shape provides protection from waves and powerful currents, making it a popular site for snorkeling and SCUBA. Most diving takes place near the westward arm of the crescent, but more advanced divers enjoy the sheer drop off on the back side of the crater. There are strong currents on the outside rim of the crater, allowing for “drift” dives. Twenty-six permanent moorings are located in Molokini Crater for both commercial and non-commercial use (specific rules regarding use of these moorings are discussed below in Section 1.3).

At the time the quoted State of Hawaii web page was published, sometime after March '05, there were 26 moorings in Molokini Crater and over 40 Commercial Charter Permits. Maui County does not issue commercial boating permits for Molokini, although they may be involved. Molokini commercial charter permits are issued by DLNR (DoBOR). That page also includes info on the Maui County Beach Park situation as well.

Molokini Crater Day Use Moorings

Hawaii Administrative Rules governing commercial use restrictions of the Molokini island day use mooring area, as stated in §13-257-52, include the following:
(a) No vessel shall use a day use mooring for commercial purposes unless the owner has been issued a marine life conservation district use permit by the department [DLNR]...
(b) Mooring zone ‘A’ is designated for use by commercial vessels carrying 12 or more passengers. Mooring zone ‘B’ is designated for use by commercial vessels carrying less than 12 passengers. The use of any one particular mooring shall be on a first-come, first-served basis...

According to HAR §13-257-54, mooring zone ‘C’ is designated “for primary use by recreational vessels. Recreational vessels may also use vacant moorings located in zones ‘A’ and ‘B’ except during the period from 8:30 am to 11:30am.”

Vessel speed is restricted to “slow-no-wake” within Subzone A per HAR §13-257-55. Fees for commercial day use mooring permits, as stated in §13-257-53, are “the greater of $100 per month or 2% of gross receipts, provided that this fee shall be waived for commercial operators who are presently paying commercial vessel user fees for the use of state boating facilities in accordance with section 13-234-5.”

 

[cuddlefish]

Like it or not, the fact is you must have the proper permits to run a commercial charter boat in Molokini, whether it is snorkel, dive or both. If you are taking paying customers out to Molokini on a private boat without the proper permits you are breaking the law. This is a Marine Reserve and there are limited permits to limit the negative impact and hold the operators to a code of conduct. That is why I wonder what boat he does his Molokini dives from.

What/who is this in regards to? I'm confused. It seems that this post is about a specific issue. Did I miss something?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Aloha everyone,

I did not start this thread; it was split off from the Premier Scuba Maui thread. I guess I was deemed to be off topic.

I was only asking if Premier Scuba Maui had the proper permits to conduct business at all the sites advertised on the web site. Gerry, who is Premier Scuba, may be operating under some other dive operators permit as an employee, and he may be taking his Molokini guests on one of the permitted dive boats, but his web site does not disclose those details.

I have been involved in the current permitting situation, as an employee for 4 dive operators here on Maui since June '05. I could have worked as an un-permitted independent instructor, for cash, not paying any taxes and only paying annual instructor insurance. I chose to be part of the legal dive community and work for operators with the proper permits.

Other SB members evidently think I am less of a man because of that decision.

It would be helpful if the thread title indicated the split off nature of this thread, like every other split off thread I have noticed before.

 

[Oside Jimc]

Other SB members evidently think I am less of a man because of that decision.

Speaking for myself that is not true, however I do feel that your consistant negative posting on this subject hurts the reputation on Maui. Every area and sport (and industry) has this same issue, there's always a free lancer working to make a buck, but in spite of that by far the lion's share of the biz is going to go to the established shops.

Regarding your original comments that started this, the referenced site / op does not specificly mention a license for Molokini, but when I loked at the site it sounded to me like yet another shop that just buys seats on others boats, they really make no mention of even owning or operating a boat so it seemed to me that you were looking for something amiss and were reading between the lines looking for it.

It's just me and my semi-worthless opinion that there are more serious issues you guys have to deal with like an anti-business county, and competition for the shrinking diving dollar from other destinations that you need to band together to promote Maui as THe place you want to visit. If someone researching destinations reads threads talking about rampant "fly-by-night", blah, blah, blah operations they could well think twice and move on to another choice. with the limited number of permitted boats for Molokini it would seem more productive to just take a pic of the unlicensed boat (they are hard to hide) and deal with it through the county instead of unproductive online speculation, sorry for the rant, just my $0.02.

It would be helpful if the thread title indicated the split off nature of this thread, like every other split off thread I have noticed before.

I agree, it confused me too.

 

[howard4113]

Halemano,

If you are so interested - rather than imply that Jerry is acting illegally, why don't you just ASK HIM? His contact info is posted on his website:
jerry@godivemaui.com
JM Derrick
9 Lawai Pl. Wailuku HI, 96793
Cell 1 808 357 1527 free to Cingular cellular
Instructor # MI 158523
PADI Credentials:
Master Instructor 8-Dec-2005
IDC Staff Instructor 21-Feb-2005
Emergency First Response Instructor 25-Jun-2003
Master Scuba Diver Trainer 05-Nov-2001
Open Water Scuba Instructor 21-Apr-1999
Dive master 26-Sep-1997

Of course it's a lot easier to speculate.:inquisition:

M