Tour made up to $108k/month in unlawful operation, according to the state.
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51 thoughts on “Illegal Tour Became Among Most Popular/Profitable Hawaii Activities”
Tour made up to $108k/month in unlawful operation, according to the state.
The greedy the human species & what great lengths humans go to exploit, every living beautiful creature gifted to us.
Is this not why we have government.
This company should never bee Allowed to operate 7 days little alone 7 years!
.. for those of you that paid to have Octopuses wrap around your finger…you can sugar coat it anyway you want but Your just as greedy to experience this.
Those poor creatures living in a tubinstead of thier natural habitat!!!
I am so saddened to hear that the Kanaloa Octopus farm has been closed down. We have enjoyed and visited this farm every trip since we heard about it. Calling it a petting zoo is a misleading statement. There is no way you can pet the octopuses. They choose to interact with each person. The choice is totally theirs. And they decide who they want to interact with.
I saw only care and concern for the octopuses when I visited them. And the interaction with the Octopuses were one of the highlights of my life.
The National Resource center for Cephalopods (Galveston Tx.) has been breeding Squid, Octopuses and cuttlefish for decades for biomedical research. The problem is that all cephalopods have an incredibly poor FCR (food conversion ratio) which means a lot of money to feed and close the cycle. In Conroy’s touch tank, it is either lack of skillset to raise Octopus or non desire to invest in feed infrastructure to raise the larvae. Much easier, cheaper and profitable to say its impossible and let folks just play with them for a fee.
What is as outrageous is the fact that the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) allowed an illegal activity to go unchallenged for 7 years
I find it even more outrageous that the State of Hawaii had this going on, advertised in multiple media forms, and they knew nothing about it?
How about those whale war episodes where the Yishin Maru whaling ship has the word “Research” on the side if it. They are only lying to themselves. We all know it’s a commercial whaling ship.
I am curious how this is any different than the seahorse farm on the Big Island? As cool as it was to see seahorses there I’m pretty sure they too would be happier in their natural environment.
I agree. We recently visited the seahorse farm on BI. While my 5 year old daughter loved it, I was skeptical. The tour guide said the top reasons for seahorse endangerment are climate chance, overfishing, and the pet industry. Yet they are raising the seahorses to be sent off as pets to people. It had me raising an eyebrow, and left with an uneasy feeling.
I too can understand why you feel uncomfortable. Until there is some kind of controls in place on the “industry” and ethical standards I wonder if this would be the answer. “Farming” of aquatic species could be the answer to continually robbing the ocean, but how many of these would be needed to supply the wants of people? Controls must be placed.
Nobody made a film called “My seahorse teacher”
I feel that the State of Hawaii is doing the right thing. And the $60.00 charge is insane. Did the owner think about human skin conditions and transmissions? Thank you to Hawaii and PETA for their hard work.
Greed never ceases to find new areas to exploit. Would these same people enslave people claiming to be Researching how to counter and deter others from Slavery? Surely it appears that way. 😳 Inter species Slavery ending in death, if extraterrestrials are real is there any doubt as to why they don’t want to meet humans?
The plural form of Octopus is definitely not octopuses. As a journalist you should know better!
Octopuses or octopods are both correct
Is that all you got out of this article… teacher????
Really?
How did this happen? Follow the money. That’s how it happened. I mean this company was promoted on TV shows, the internet , at etc. Hawaii government straight up allowed this to happen.
Outside haoleez who migrate to Hawai’i who practice further exploitation of native Hawai’ian creatures of the sea which is similar as raping the tide pools and coastal reefs of native fishes for personal aquariums worldwide.
They couldn’t do this in plain site without a business license and permits. Say what you want about haloes John, but they wouldn’t be doing this without the blessing of big government. So it’s either straight corruption or laziness . 7 years is a long time to be operating a ‘illegal’ business that’s not hiding what they do
I wonder if competitive spearfishing is as bad, as it’s not like we see competitive spearfishers protesting and picketing to end commercial fishing. Hmmm.