WAILUKU, Maui — Hawaii Superferry remains under a court order today prohibiting service to Maui, while federal, state and county law enforcement officials work to devise a strategy to ensure the vessel's safe return to Kaua'i.

The company has suffered a disastrous start to its much-anticipated interisland ferry service between O'ahu, Kaua'i and Maui. Protests on Kaua'i and a Maui court case halted the ferry only two days after its launch on Sunday, leaving the company to deal with stranded passengers, refund-seekers and an $85 million catamaran left idle at its Honolulu homeport.

Hawaii Superferry President and CEO John Garibaldi said yesterday there are no immediate plans to attempt another Kaua'i voyage, although he hopes it can happen soon to avoid further disappointing travelers.

Garibaldi expressed frustration that authorities have not been able to make security arrangements that would allow the ferry to use Nawiliwili Harbor, where several hundred protesters in the water and on land delayed Sunday's ferry arrival and thwarted the vessel's attempt to dock Monday.

The company agreed to suspend future voyages indefinitely due to concerns about the safety of the protesters.

Garibaldi said he found it "alarming" that law enforcement agencies have been unable to make the Kaua'i harbor safe for the ferry to lawfully berth and to enforce laws establishing a 100-yard security zone around the 350-foot vessel.

"It's akin to having people go to an airport runway and lie down," he said. "We're saddened that people aren't taking this seriously if laws are being violated."

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen called the Kaua'i protests a "challenging" situation that officials are taking "very seriously." He noted that state and county authorities also are involved in the response.

"These people were not terrorists. They did not pose a threat to the safety of the Superferry. This is not a security issue, it's a safety issue. There's a fine line between balancing safety and security," Titchen said.

"Escalating the situation is not worth risking injuries or worse, death."

STRATEGY MEETING

Representatives of the Coast Guard, Kaua'i police, the state sheriff's office and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees state harbors, met yesterday to discuss a strategy to allow the ferry to resume Kaua'i service, and additional meetings are planned, officials said.

Meanwhile, state Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), yesterday urged Gov. Linda Lingle to defend Superferry's right to do business, including mobilizing the Hawai'i National Guard if necessary to clear the harbor on Kaua'i.

"Actions such as these are reminiscent of a Third World country where extremists rule the day and the law is not respected," Hemmings said of the state Supreme Court's ruling requiring an environmental review and the fallout that has followed.

DOT spokesman Scott Ishikawa said law enforcement agencies decided a measured response was appropriate for the anticipated opposition to the Superferry's first commercial voyage to Kaua'i on Sunday.

"It wouldn't have been right if we went overboard on security. Since the Maui protests were civil, it wouldn't have been fair to put an army out there to intimidate folks," he said. "We gave people the benefit of the doubt that things would remain civil, but unfortunately they did not and we increased security Monday night."

Ishikawa said there were fewer incidents during Monday's protest than on Sunday, when demonstrators harassed arriving passengers, locked the harbor gate and damaged cars.

A total of 14 protesters were arrested over both days.

Maui opponents of the Superferry have looked to the courts to force the state to conduct an environmental study of potential ferry impacts.

In a court case brought by Maui Tomorrow, the Sierra Club and the Kahului Harbor Coalition, the state Supreme Court ruled Aug. 23 that the state was wrong to exempt publicly funded ferry-related projects at the Kahului Harbor from the state's environmental protection law.

The Maui projects, which include a barge, ramps, fencing and utilities, are part of $40 million in state-funded, ferry-related construction at Kahului, Nawiliwili, Honolulu and Kawaihae harbors.

Following the ruling, Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza on Monday granted the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order banning the state from allowing the ferry to use Kahului Harbor.

At a hearing yesterday, Cardoza rejected a motion by Hawaii Superferry and the DOT to dissolve the temporary order.

At the request of company attorney Lisa Munger, the judge also postponed until Sept. 6 a hearing on whether to issue a preliminary and/or permanent injunction that would keep the ban in place until the DOT conducts an environmental assessment on the Kahului Harbor projects.

Munger told Cardoza she needed more time to assemble witnesses to testify that allowing Hawaii Superferry to continue service while the assessment is done would not cause irreparable harm.

FEARS OF FERRY

Attorney Isaac Hall, representing three groups that have been pressing for an environmental review, said he would present his own witnesses showing that the ferry service would endanger humpback whales and other marine species, risk the spread of invasive species, impede recreational use of the harbor, and harm fishing and other Native Hawaiian subsistence resources that would be overwhelmed by people from other islands bringing their vehicles on the ferry.

During arguments on whether the temporary restraining order should remain in effect, Munger said it was wrong for the court "to shut down a business without being heard," considering that hundreds of jobs were at stake and that hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in the ferry service.

Cardoza had granted Hall's request for the order on Monday without holding a hearing, which is not unusual in such cases.

Munger also said the order would continue to deny Hawai'i residents interisland ferry service that is commonplace in many other locales. She said the company relied on the DOT exemption as the go-ahead to pursue its business plans.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling, the Superferry pushed up the start date to Sunday and offered special $5 fares, a move Hall characterized as show of "utter bad faith."

He accused ferry officials of causing a major disruption by starting ahead of schedule and offering the bargain fare "to pour people all over the state to make it really inconvenient to stop."

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.