A proposal moving through the City Council makes it illegal to operate shark tours on O'ahu.

The bill, which won a preliminary approval from the council yesterday, is drawing mixed reviews from the public.

Existing state law makes it illegal to operate shark tours within three miles of the shore. Bill 67-09 would make it illegal to maintain an office, collect money, market or conduct any other activity related to a shark tour. Violators could be fined up to $1,000 or jailed for up to a year.

Two businesses, North Shore Shark Adventures and Hawaii Shark Encounters, would be forced to close or change their operations if the bill passes. The two have operated out of the Haleiwa Small Boat Harbor for at least eight years.

Owners of both operations oppose the measure and say their tours do not create additional dangers for other water recreation enthusiasts.

Joe Pavsek, owner of North Shore Shark Adventures, said no one from the Hale'iwa area has complained about the tours.

Pavsek said Galapagos and sandbar sharks are the main sharks they encounter and they are among the most docile of all sharks.

The sharks have been drawn to the area by crab-fishing boats who have congregated there for decades, Pavsek said.

"We haven't done anything that crab fishermen haven't done there for 45 years," he said.

Federal law prohibits him from feeding sharks three miles offshore unless an operation is involved in research, Pavsek said, and he has research arrangements with both the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Pavsek said his crew will throw "a very small bucket of bait to get the sharks close to people" but no more.

Some have suggested that the bill could be amended to allowing an exemption for the two existing businesses, or for the waters off Hale'iwa.

Stefanie Brendl, owner of Hawaii Shark Encounters, said she believes the city should allow shark tours in Hale'iwa. Brendl said the conditions in Hale'iwa are unique and cannot be duplicated in other parts of the island or even the state.

TALK OF EXEMPTION

Councilman Charles Djou said he welcomes discussion on an exemption for Hale'iwa or the two existing companies as the bill makes its way through the council.

Pavsek also said he does not think the city proposal is legal.

"They can't ban advertising," he said, citing the First Amendment's protection of freedom of speech.

The measure, which now goes to the council's Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, was introduced by Djou.

Enforcing the current ban is difficult, Djou said. "We're passing a bill to ban marketing and commercial activities," he said. "That's a far easier way to enforce the ban than having it done on the water."

A similar bill was adopted by the Maui County Council earlier this year.

Native Hawaiian Leighton Tseu of Waiau said Hawaiians consider sharks "the ali'i of the ocean" and that profiting from shark tours is disrespectful.

"Sharks have a very important role in the Hawaiian religious system," Tseu said. "We need to have the culture respected."

Jurgen Thomas Steinmetz, a Hale'iwa resident, said he took a shark tour last week for the first time and found nothing disrespectful or dangerous about it.

Steinmetz said that so long as nothing is done to attract the sharks in their natural environment, "it's safe."

The shark tour business "represents enormous income potential for Hawai'i," he said.

Greg Knudsen, chairman of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, said his panel voted to recommend that the council ban shark tours.

A company had proposed operating shark tours off of Maunalua Bay earlier this year but withdrew the plan amid opposition from the East Honolulu community.

"Shark tours attract sharks, they attract sharks by feeding them," Knudsen said.

He discounted a recent University of Hawai'i study that operators have used to suggest shark tours are safe.

The two-year study was conducted by the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology and concluded shark-cage dive tours pose little risk to public safety. It said that the tour boats operate three miles out and that the sharks do not follow them back to shore.

"You will find that study is pretty shallow and in many ways invalid primarily because the data they used was provided by the shark tour operators themselves who would be inclined to underreport the spotting of dangerous sharks like tiger sharks and white sharks," Knudsen said.