Limited commercial boat operations to return to Lahaina Harbor for first time since destructive wildfire of 2023

LAHAINA — Lahaina Harbor is pitch-black and dead quiet on Tuesday evening as a pair of catamarans with ‘70s jams playing from the speakers cruise up to the dock for gas and a fresh water rinse. 

Refueling and boat washing are the only activities at a harbor that’s been empty since the August 2023 wildfires destroyed all but 13 vessels at the 99 moorings and burned most of the harbor infrastructure, including the newly built harbor master’s office, the dinghy dock and front row piers.

But on Dec. 15, following the difficult removal of the sunken boats, restoration of the fueling station and repairs of the bathrooms, the state-run harbor will begin to slowly allow commercial marine operations to return with loading and unloading permitted at the dock during daytime hours.

Four companies are ready to restart: Atlantis Adventures, Sea Link of Hawai‘i, Kula Fishing Company and Sail Maui.

“We’ve been in the economic doldrums for awhile,” said Jim Walsh, the sole remaining paid Maui employee of Atlantis, which lost its submarine in the fire. “So if the harbor could come back, there’s a synergy that happens between the business community on Front Street and elsewhere.”

Another five companies will start around January, with a couple more in February and March, said Meghan Statts, administrator of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, which oversees the harbor.

The staggered rollout is based on companies’ readiness, but it also will give the state a chance to assess the harbor’s capacity, which Statts estimated may be around 14 or 15 companies since the full facility isn’t ready to be used. Boats still can’t moor at the harbor.

Prior to the fire, 47 permitted operators ran vessels out of the harbor and employed nearly 600 residents collectively, according to the county-run Maui Nui Strong website. The fire led to the loss of 82 boats and at least 562 jobs.

Statts said she’s not sure how many boat owners plan to return. Before the fire, 60% of the boats at the harbor were for recreational use and the other 40% were commercial.

The partial reopening of the harbor, once a thriving hub of recreational and commercial activity, signals another key step forward in the town’s recovery. But it’s also a step that the state and Maui County are taking with caution due to its location in a sensitive area where rebuilding has barely begun.

“It definitely is a balance of bringing the facility back, but also making sure that we are respecting the local culture in the area and history,” Statts said.

Fencing is in place to protect sensitive areas that include damaged historic structures and properties that haven’t been rebuilt, with more fencing being added this month, John Smith, administrator of the Maui County Office of Recovery, said at a community meeting. Access will also be barred from sites like the banyan tree and Malu ‘Ulu o Lele Park where the former seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom was once located.

The harbor is still two years away from full restoration, which is estimated to cost nearly $30 million. There’s still no lighting in the area, which is why activities will be limited to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The department plans to request another $12.5 million from the state Legislature for the remaining projects, which include dredging of the channel and the harbor, replacement of the front-row piers and dinghy dock, and work on the inner and outer marginal wharf. Completion is slated for late 2027. Statts said the main holdups are permitting and design, which can take about a year. 

For the businesses that once operated at Lahaina Harbor, the return of some commercial activities has been a long time coming. 

The fire left the shallow harbor waters full of debris and sunken boats that required a joint cleanup effort between the state, the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Thousands of gallons of petroleum products and hundreds of pounds of hazardous materials, including batteries, were removed from the harbor in the early weeks after the fire.

Crews used float bags to raise sunken boats to the surface. Some vessels required torch-cutting and an 80-ton crane to dismantle and remove the pieces for transport.

By March 2024, 80 fire-damaged vessels had been removed from the harbor. By August 2024, the harbor’s fuel dock reopened to the public.  

The harbor master’s office was among the last debris to be removed in October, which paved the way for limited activities in December. The restrooms are also expected to be finished by then.

Some companies, including Atlantis, have not been operating on Maui since the fires. After losing its 48-passenger, battery-powered sub, the company sent some employees to work on O‘ahu and Hawai‘i island, but eventually they had to lay off almost all 33 Maui workers. 

Now the company is working to hire back about 14 employees, including certified pilots and other senior staff, with the hope that as business picks up around the summer, they’ll be able to expand, Walsh said. 

“It’s just going to be a skeleton crew, because we have to make sure this is successful,” Walsh said. “We’ve been out of business here for two and a half years … so we only have one shot to get it right. We won’t have another opportunity if we have to close down and reopen again.”

Fortunately, Atlantis has an additional sub in dry dock in Honolulu that will be brought to Maui. It would have cost about $10 million to purchase a new one, Walsh estimated. 

Walsh, a member of the Maui Economic Recovery Commission, said the harbor had an economic ripple effect. In addition to employing hundreds of people, commercial operators also created jobs for catering and beverage companies and sent visitors out into Lahaina town where they’d “go out and eat in restaurants and buy T-shirts” from businesses nearby. 

He misses the camaraderie of the harbor and the joys of taking visitors and groups of Lahaina schoolkids in the sub to see an underwater world that includes the shipwreck of a 1920s replica whaling vessel called the Carthaginian, a deteriorating floating museum that Atlantis bought for $1 in 2005 and spent about $350,000 to turn into an artificial reef off the coast. 

Sail Maui also is preparing to return to Lahaina. The two boats that the company had moored outside the harbor survived the fire and have relocated to Sugar Beach in Kīhei since then, President Don Prestage said. The company had 40 employees but now is at 25 after some staff moved off-island.

Since the fire, Sail Maui’s business is down about 75%, but Prestage said the company has been able to stay afloat due to “a really strong financial partner.” 

With operations at Lahaina restricted to daylight hours, the company will be doing limited versions of its tours, with sunset sails becoming “golden hour sails” at the end of its whale-watching tours and Lāna‘i coast snorkeling trips. He said the company also hopes to offer weekly free sails for community members impacted by the fire. 

“We’re excited, and we also think it’s a huge responsibility,” Prestage said. “We realize we’re one of the first businesses coming back into the core of Lahaina, and so we’re excited to do it.

“And, we just feel that we have a responsibility to do things really right with our entire community in mind.”

Other companies hoping to return to Lahaina in the coming months include Trilogy Excursions, which lost a boat in the fire and is expecting its replacement to arrive in early February, said Denver Coon, an owner of Trilogy, president of the Ocean Tourism Coalition and member of the Maui Economic Recovery Commission.

Since the harbor reopened its fuel station, Trilogy has been coming by in the mornings and evenings, which saves the company the cost and time it takes to travel from Kā‘anapali to Mā‘alaea. Trilogy had six boats before the fire, with three operating out of Lahaina Harbor, and two others operating out of Kā‘anapali but relying on Lahaina as a fueling station. 

After the fire, the company had to lay off all 160 of its employees, although it’s hired back about 150. Still, operations are down about 40%.

Coon hopes Trilogy can return to Lahaina soon. The company had 32 employees who lost their homes in the fire, and he said they’re eager to get back to living and working in Lahaina.

“A thriving economy … raises all ships,” Coon said.

Even with the partial reopening, Coon said there are still a lot of unknowns, including the desire of tourists to go to Lahaina. The Front Street shops and restaurants that visitors once flocked to before and after their boat tours have yet to rebuild, and it’s unclear when they’ll return. 

In October, there were 179,459 visitors to Maui, a slight decline from the 181,487 visitors recorded in October 2024, according to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. That’s more than the 132,909 visitors who came in October 2023 after West Maui reopened to tourism, but the numbers are still well below October 2022 when 228,071 visitors came to Maui.

Coon pointed out that with so many boats destroyed in the fire, Lahaina Harbor is “still several years” from being the bustling hub that it once was.

“It’s going to be kind of a slow trickle in as more services come online,” he said.

However, the slow return of activity also could help ease the town back into things. And, if there are issues with commercial operations in the area, “we’ll be able to work with them and respond to them in an appropriate way.”

RESPECTFUL RETURN

Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin said she’s been talking to community groups about the harbor partially reopening and said one of the top concerns is people “gawking at properties, taking pictures, going in their properties.”

“I think people understand that people need to get back to work and earn money and whatnot, but of course safety first, critical infrastructure, and those types of things,” Paltin said. 

One of the community groups she’s been talking to is Kaibigan ng Lahaina, which means “friends or family of Lahaina,” and was created to help Filipino fire survivors. Nestor Ugale, president of the nonprofit, said “there’s never going to be a right time” to bring back activity, because everyone is on a different timeline for healing.

But he said allowing some businesses to restart would help some people in the community who depend on them. He just wants to see it done right. 

“The community at large … they don’t want loitering. They don’t want people going into private property and taking things or desecrating it or not honoring and respecting those places,” Ugale said. “So I do feel like the county or the state needs to assume some of that accountability and protect the places that are not yet built.”  

He said responsibility also falls on the companies to educate their guests. 

Prestage said Sail Maui is currently working on a video that will be sent to guests as part of their booking confirmation to remind them that “this is meaningful and significant for us, and asking them to come back with respect and mindfulness and to be aware this isn’t a place for photo ops and videos. They can do that when they get on the boat.”

The company also has received permission from the county to have its crew meet guests in the parking lot and escort them directly from their cars to the harbor. 

Walsh said bringing back visitors respectfully comes down to communication. Companies need to be talking to each other and the community as well as their guests, using the return as an opportunity to share more about Lahaina and the need to be respectful and not wander off. 

“I think that will build trust and people will see that hey, it’s not the mad crazy visitor rush that some people might think that it’s going to be,” Walsh said. 

Statts said the state is working collaboratively with the county and boaters to understand “what we can do to help with rebuilding the harbor, being respectful to the local community,” while also recognizing the need for economic recovery in Lahaina.

Maui County Deputy Managing Director Erin Wade said that staff with Park Maui, the county’s parking management program, will open the barricades each morning at 8 a.m. and close them at 6 p.m.

“It’s not for paid parking at this time,” Wade said. “It’s just to have a presence within the commercial district that can assist you with parking and can assist visitors where it’s safe to park.”

Beach access to Breakwalls will remain open but other areas will be closed. Parking will not be allowed on the street and will be limited to 500 Front Street and 116 Prison Street. 

Full guidelines were shared in a community presentation earlier this month.