Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, July 9, 2009
A policy specialist who was laid off from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources last month maintains he was illegally fired because he repeatedly raised concerns about the agency not complying with the same environmental law that sank Hawaii Superferry.
David Weingartner says, in a whistleblower lawsuit filed yesterday, that the department’s Division of Aquatic Resources failed to comply with the Hawai’i Environmental Policy Act as it approved nearly 100 permits since December 2006 for research and other work in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. […]
The approved permits for the marine sanctuary covered a wide range of proposed activities, including the use of so-called bang sticks, a type of firearm, to kill Galapagos sharks preying on monk seal pups, according to Marti Townsend of Kahea, an environmental group that has raised concerns about the lack of state environmental reviews for monument work. […]