Advocates say replenishment needed to slow pace of erosion
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
POSTED: July 5, 2008
The Maui News
With dive gear ready, Darrell Tanaka of Haiku surveys the beach at the west end of Kanaha Beach near the Kahului Wastewater Treatment Facility on Wednesday morning, expressing a need to discuss plans to restore a beach at Spreckelsville by dredging sand from offshore. That can affect crabbing and fishing grounds, he said.
SPRECKELSVILLE - Donald Okuda has been diving off Maui's north shore since he was 13 years old - 64 years ago. Sand replenishment on beaches worries him.
Even if the sand is clean, "when you dredge over it, it buries the life underneath the sand. You get a chain reaction."
Norm Ham, also a diver, says the disturbance of the crustaceans that are food for fish affects the fish. That affects the octopus that make their homes in the shallow reefs off Kahului.
"It damages the reef; it's not a natural thing," says Ham, who has been diving since the '60s.
The Board of Land and Natural Resources has approved a ...
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