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Several North Shore property owners face more than $3 million in state fines for destroying a critical native bee habitat — pushing two of those bee species closer to extinction — and for installing an unpermitted fence that contributed to the killing of a nesting Laysan albatross.

That female bird, known as Ho‘okipa, was found entangled in the fence by local marine animal rescue workers in December and died en route to medical care. Authorities later determined that Ho‘okipa was killed by a grounds worker who threw a rock at her head, according to newly released state documents.

The incidents happened at Marconi Point, an agricultural-designated area with more than a dozen lot owners next to Turtle Bay Resort. 

Marconi borders a state conservation district along the shoreline where, in October, groundskeepers decimated a two-acre stretch of naupaka brush and heliotrope trees that had comprised some of the island’s last remaining habitat for the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bee. 

Las Vegas-based tech entrepreneur Sushil Garg and a grounds supervisor that Garg had hired, Benjamin Lassary, were responsible for the landscaping and mulching work along the shoreline, detailing the reasons behind the proposed fines. 

Garg recently purchased several parcels at Marconi Point, records show. 

When he met with state officials after the plants had already been destroyed, Garg “expressed a concern about the dry brush and fire” and “did not know about the importance of the vegetation,” according to a Department of Land and Natural Resources report.

Meanwhile, the iron fence where Ho‘okipa was discovered runs along a parcel at Marconi’s western end owned by popular Chinese American television host .��

Ho‘okipa and her mate had already nested in that area for five years when crews installed the fence there in 2022, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife memo on the matter. 

Denise Antolini, a member of the grassroots conservation group Aloha Marconi Alliance, visited the Marconi shoreline last week and said that “it looks like a devastation zone” with the naupaka brush and heliotrope gone. 

“It’s shocking. It’s totally unforgivable. Everyone is watching this because it is such a major issue, the potential amount of fines,” Antolini said. 

That nearly $3.2 million amount, she added, “is really a milestone and maybe unprecedented because the level of damage is unprecedented.”

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources will consider whether to approve the fines Friday. DLNR spokesperson Dan Denison could not confirm Tuesday whether the total fine amount, recommended by the Division of Forestry and Wildlife and the Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, was unprecedented.

The bulk of the recommended fines applies to the bee habitat destruction, including the loss of more than 100 heliotrope trees and the loss of 300 endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bees there. 

Kan faces some $45,000 in fines for the iron boundary fence that ensnared Ho‘okipa late last year. State officials said they couldn’t find records of any city or state permits authorizing it. 

Garg’s attorney, Kalani Morse, did not respond to a request for comment Monday. 

Seth Buckley, an attorney for Kan, said Monday that he wasn’t authorized to comment on the penalties but that representatives for Kan would address the board on Friday. 

‘Irreparable Harm’

Kahuku, which includes Marconi Point, is one of the last remaining places on Oahu to find Hylaeus Anthracinus, a coastal bee species that largely depends on naupaka, according to University of Hawaii researchers.

However, the loss of the 2-mile stretch of habitat at Marconi Point has fragmented the population there, leaving Hylaeus Anthracinus and another endangered yellow-faced bee species, Hylaeus Longiceps, more vulnerable to extinction as they contend with invasive species, climate change and other issues, state conservation officials say. 

Kahuku is one of just four remaining habitats on Oahu for Hylaeus Anthracinus and one of just three habitats on Oahu for Hylaeus Longiceps, according to a DLNR report.

The shoreline fronting Marconi Point sees few visitors because it’s a 2-mile hike from the Turtle Bay parking lot. Nonetheless, reports quickly spread among local community members and conservationists in October that workers were removing the naupaka and heliotrope there.

On Oct. 17, workers clearing the vegetation with chainsaws and machetes initially refused to stop when state conservation staff asked them to, according to an OCCL report. 

Those staffers eventually found Lassary on site and convinced him to stop the work, it added. 

Still, the damage done to that 2-mile stretch represents an “irreparable harm” to the ecology there, according to DLNR.

Even if crews manage to replace the lost naupaka shrubs and heliotrope trees, it will be tough to reintroduce the endangered bee species because typically those insects are loyal to their original homes, according to state conservation officials. 

As part of their justification for the fines, state officials say that Lassary was aware of the indigenous bees living on the coastline. Lassary could not be reached for comment.

An Intentional Albatross Killing, Agents Find

Ho‘okipa and her mate had returned to the same spot within a 32-foot radius at the border of Turtle Bay and Kan’s Marconi Point property since 2017 to nest, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife memo. 

However, Kan’s boundary fence, built in 2022, ran right through the albatross pair’s nesting area, the memo stated. Their egg failed to hatch that year because the fence obstructed the birds and prevented them from sufficiently incubating it, according to federal conservation officials.

Ho‘okipa and her mate returned to the same site in late November and laid another egg. 

Then, on Dec. 2, volunteers with the nonprofit Hawaii Marine Animal Response reported finding Ho‘okipa entangled in the fence as Marconi Point grounds personnel worked with string trimmer power tools nearby, according to the memo.

“It was clear from the grass around the nest that a weed whacker had gone right up to the nest,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife memo stated. “Our team has observed weed whackers causing serious distress in Laysan Albatross on other occasions and would assume the albatross was trying to flee from the weed whacker, but could not because of the unpermitted fence.”

A joint investigation by that federal agency and the state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement “revealed no emergency or good reason for the workers to clear the vegetation/grass near Ho‘okipa and her egg,” a DLNR report stated.

The report adds that those state and federal agents found “the workers threw a rock at Ho‘okipa, ultimately striking her in the head and causing her death.”

No other details of that joint investigation have been publicized.

that Ho‘okipa and her mate could have nested for another 50 years or so had she not been killed, producing around 12 more albatross chicks in her lifetime.

The violations that occurred at Marconi are “not normal and not common” in Hawaii, Antolini said Monday. 

The potential fines involved are “of great interest across the state, but there just aren’t that many situations that are that extreme,” she said.

Garg, meanwhile, faces a separate DLNR investigation into potentially unauthorized demolition work on the historic Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Station.

The 1910s-era telegraph building was supposed to be preserved under the terms of a 2021 federal loan guarantee for construction at that site.

Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by The Healy Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.