Judge upholds aerial hunting on Mauna Kea

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources can continue hunting feral sheep on the slopes of Mauna Kea by helicopter despite a 2012 Hawaii County ordinance prohibiting animal eradication by air.

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled Monday that the federal Endangered Species Act and a 1998 federal court order issued to protect the native habitat of the endangered palila bird pre-empt the ordinance and state law.

A law on the state books since 1923 also prohibits hunting by air.

The Hawaii County Council unanimously approved ordinance 12-109 in June even after Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida said he and the state advised Council members that the ordinance would be superceded by the court order and federal law.

Ashida said Council members wanted to discourage others from conducting aerial hunts and to encourage the state to explore alternative methods for ridding sheep from the mamane-naio forest that supports the endemic palila, or Hawaiian honeycreeper.

He said there have been recent reports of people hunting by helicopter in Kawaihae and on Hualalai and that Seabright’s order does not prevent the county from prosecuting hunters not covered by the 1998 court order.

The state DLNR says until last year, when it did just one hunt, it had been conducting two to four aerial hunts per year since 1998. There have been no aerial hunts so far this year. The next one is planned for April 22-25.

The department says it has been conducting live captures as well. The DLNR said it rounded up 60 mouflon sheep March 21 and an additional 28 Thursday.

Department spokes­woman Deborah Ward said the animals were placed in a holding pen and then released in the Kea­moku section of the Pohakuloa Training Area, where they are available for hunting. She said the department hopes to conduct two to three more live captures before the next aerial hunt.

Ward said the aerial hunts are necessary because not all of the animals can be captured — they are either in areas where they cannot be driven into an enclosure, or they refuse to be driven at all.

In 1998, U.S. District Judge Samuel P. King signed an order agreed to by the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Hawaii Audubon Society, state DLNR, Wildlife Conservation Association of Hawaii and Hawaii County. The order directed the state to conduct semiannual aerial sightings of the palila’s critical habitat area and shoot any ungulates, or hoofed animals like goats and sheep.

The order capped off 20 years of litigation to protect the palila and prevent its extinction.

The palila lives only on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea, where it feeds on the green seed pods of the mamane tree. The palila population has been declining due to the destruction of its habitat by grazing animals like goats and sheep.