Fishermen and surfers have voiced outrage over the closure of five miles of beach fronting the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana due to the heightened security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. “Fishermen and surfers are in an
Fishermen and surfers have voiced outrage over the closure of five miles of beach fronting the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana due to the heightened security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
“Fishermen and surfers are in an uproar,” said Keith Karasic, a longtime surfer from O’mao. “Some people did some crazy things last September. And here it is, nearly six months later we are still negatively affected by it.”
Kaua’i County Council Chair Ron Kouchi, meanwhile, planned to hand-carry petitions to Hawai’i’s congressional team signed by more than 1,400 Kaua’i residents asking that the public once again have use of the beach area.
Kouchi was in Washington D.C. for county business and was expected to fly back to Hawai’i today.
The ban pits the right claimed by the military to close the beach to protect the base following Sept. 11 and the right claimed by residents to continue using the beach.
The military said the security measures for the Kaua’i base are consistent with those for any Navy facility in Hawai’i.
Since Sept. 11, chains have been stretched between wood posts to keep people out of the beach between the Kekaha Landfill to the south of the base and the southern edge of Polihale State Park to the north of the base, surfers said.
Surfers say they understand the need for enhanced security, but called for compromise.
“I understand the need to keep the base safe and security for the base, but there is a way to mitigate (the ban) to allow access to the beach,” said Karasic, who, after securing military passes prior to September 11, has surfed off the beach and has camped on the coastline for 23 years.
Karasic said a security guard approached him two weeks ago when he was on the beach and warned him he would be detained if he crossed over into the off-limits beach section.
Karasic said the ban is selective. Military and retired military personnel, contract workers and their families have used the beach since Sept. 11, he said.
“I don’t think it should be a private playground,” Karasic said.
Previously, beachgoers could get day passes or annual entry passes to access the beach. Normally, the beach off PMRF is only closed, sometimes just for a day, during military operations or maneuvers.
The holders of the yearly passes have proven they are not a threat to the military by virtue of the fact they have secured yearly permits, Karasic said.
“The military has a list of people who have historically gotten clearance,” Karasic said. “They are good citizens. They are good Americans.”
Rather than close the beach, beachgoers should be allowed access to it after a thorough background check by the military, contended Mark White, an O’mao resident who has surfed at the beaches for 25 years. “There should be a compromise,” he said.
People who use the beach are trying to follow a “recreational routine,” Karasic said.
“I surf there in the winter, and I go there sometimes to windsurf and for camping. That place is our lives,” Karasic said.
White said people derive “good mental health” by using the beach, a popular place for fishing, surfing, picnicking, coastline walks and collecting of shells.
“It is really important to the health of the community,” White said. “It is a great place to hang out and to experience God’s magnificent creation.”
Critics said the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which manages the beach fronting the Navy base, should have stepped in and stopped the Navy from closing the beach for public use.
“The public depended on the state to protect their rights, but nothing was done,” said a longtime surfer who asked not to be identified. Officials from the DLNR were not immediately available for comment.
Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a public affairs officer with Navy’s CNRH on O’ahu, said the security measures in place for the Navy base on Kaua’i are consistent with those for other Navy facilities in Hawai’i.
“It is the appropriate force protection measure in light of security requirements,” Campbell said.
Stiffer security checks were in place at other Navy facilities on O’ahu even before the Sept. 11 attacks, Campell said.
Motorists must provide Department of Defense identification cards and meet other security requirements before they can enter military installations on O’ahu, she said.
TGI Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681, Ext. 225, or mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net.
