������Ƶ

On Sunday a group of 33 swimmers — most young and white, from the photos provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources — .

Uniformed  officers were there. They captured drone footage of the swimmers “aggressively pursuing, corralling, and harassing the pod,” took names and handed the case over to federal law enforcement for further investigation.

Federal law from spinner dolphins in Hawaii’s nearshore waters — a rule that went into effect in 2021 amid concerns that too many tourists were swimming too close to dolphins. Spinner dolphins hunt at night and need to rest during the day. Being pursued by curious humans disrupts their rest and can lead to a greater risk of predation. And for what? A selfie?

Not only will this likely deter these 33 swimmers from trying to swim with wild dolphins again, it hopefully sends another message: DOCARE is watching.

For years the enforcement division has been criticized for not being visible enough, for not responding to complaints fast enough, for not catching violators.

But up until last month, the state only had 54 enforcement officers managing and protecting 3 million acres of marine waters, the largest tropical forest in the nation, the 11th largest forest reserve in the U.S. of which more than 1 million acres have been set aside for hunting, 1.2 million acres of state-owned lands, 2 million acres of conservation lands and 23,000 acres of inland surface waters.

Compare that to the . Fifty-four DOCARE officers seems almost comical.

This month 41 men and women — the largest recruit class to date — graduated from an intense, eight-month-long training program to become DOCARE officers. The newly commissioned officers — 14 on Oahu, 14 on Hawaii island, seven across Maui County and six on Kauai — started work on Monday.

It’s something — but ultimately it’s not enough.

“These officers are basically game wardens, forest rangers, park rangers, police officers, marine patrol all rolled into one,” says DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla. “They respond from mauka to makai, 3 miles out to sea. That’s their area of responsibility.”

“Literally, in an eight-hour shift, you can be going after illegal hunters on the Pali, conducting fish market inspections in Chinatown, doing recreational boating inspections in Waikiki, all on the same shift. That could really happen,” he added.

Redulla, who has been with DOCARE since 2004 and served as an officer himself, is fully aware of the challenges the department faces, especially with the growing pressure to preserve Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources in this post-pandemic restricted, less-impact-on-the-environment-please climate.

“We’ve been down on officers for so long that it’s difficult to meet people’s expectations of service,” he says. “We were in a reactive mode versus a proactive mode, and as a law enforcement agency, that’s not a good thing for us.”

To be more proactive, though, requires officers on the ground (or water). Even with the new 41 officers, the department has 24 more vacancies to fill, Redulla says. And that’s still not enough.

The scope of what these officers do is mind-boggling. They respond to everything from missing hikers on state trails to vandals at sacred cultural sites. They’re called when owners do authorized work on homes that are falling into the ocean on the North Shore.

“These officers are basically game wardens, forest rangers, park rangers, police officers, marine patrol all rolled into one.”

DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla

They’re called when construction crews find human remains at work sites. They’re called when people harass wildlife, like swimmers corralling spinner dolphins. The officers even have a special permit to take their state vehicles home because they’re often called at night and on weekends to respond.

“The public doesn’t see too much of us, we don’t have a lot of visibility, and we recognize this is a problem,” Redulla says.

In 2018 the department , then a six-week course for recruits with prior law enforcement work experience and training. The following year the department held its first academy for recruits with no prior police experience. And in this most recent class, all 41 had none.

Allowing people with no prior law enforcement experience has opened the doors to a larger pool of applicants, Redulla says, and many times these recruits are incredibly passionate about protecting and preserving Hawaii’s natural, cultural and historical resources. (Another call for recruits will happen later this year.)

“It’s created more diversity (within DOCARE),” he says. “And the people we hire, especially with this last class, they want to be here and they’re here for the right reasons, and that’s always a good thing.”

The job isn’t easy, especially convincing the public — and the government, which funds this department — how important it actually is.

Like any law enforcement agency, DOCARE officers are sworn to protect the public; that’s the No. 1 priority. But they have the added responsibility of protecting everything that makes our island home unique and special. Native plants and birds, shorelines and mountains, stocks of wild fish, sacred sites.

Native Hawaiians believe in the interconnectedness of all things, that the health of one affects the health of the others. And this responsibility shouldn’t be solely on the shoulders of DOCARE. We should all feel this urgency.

“The bread and butter of what we do is patrol the beat, get out in the field and catch poachers red-handed,” Redulla says. “To the extent that we can do that, and to the extent that we can get more positions to do that, not only will we preserve and conserve our resources for the future, but we’re hopefully sending the message that we’re out there, we’re watching, and we will take action.”