WHEREAS, chapter 200-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, gives the Department of Land and Natural Resources the responsibility to administer the ocean recreation and coastal area programs; and

WHEREAS, voyaging canoes, which are designed, built, and operated in the traditional manner of Pacific Islanders, play an important role in preserving, perpetuating, and practicing traditional Hawaiian culture; and

WHEREAS, because voyaging canoes are used as a platform for education and language preservation and revitalization, they are dynamic models of Hawaiian culture at work; and

WHEREAS, the primary mission of private, non-profit organizations or public educational institutions that own and operate voyaging canoes is to perpetuate the oceanic voyaging traditions, culture, and history of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands; and

WHEREAS, the non-profit organizations and the public educational institutions that promote the traditions of the Hawaiian culture with the voyaging canoes are charged mooring fees by the Division of Boating and Recreation; and

WHEREAS, non-profit sailing schools that anchor in Hawaii are not charged any mooring fees; and

WHEREAS, it is incongruous that sailing schools are not charged fees while the non-profit organizations and the public educational institutions that promote the traditions of the Hawaiian culture with the voyaging canoes do not have a berthing place to moor their voyaging canoes or are charged to do so when a temporary space is made available; and now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the Department of Land and Natural Resources work with the Department of Transportation to dedicate a berthing area in each county where non-profit educational organizations which own or operate a voyaging canoe can moor and berth their voyaging canoes at no cost, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2007; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Director of Transportation.

Report Title:

Mooring fees; exemption