Molokai Hunters Airlifted from Pelekunu Valley

Air rescue. File photos/graphics by Wendy Osher.

On Sunday, October 30, 2016, the Maui Fire Department airlifted three Molokai pig hunters stranded overnight in Pelekunu Valley, on Molokai’s north shore.

On Saturday, six adults and nine hunting dogs arrived by small boat to go pig hunting in the remote valley.

At around 3 p.m., weather and ocean conditions worsened, which resulted in only three of the six individuals making it back out to the boat.

Two males aged 18 and 30, a 15-year-old female, and the nine hunting dogs were not able to make it safely out to the boat and remained on shore.

The boat’s operator informed the Coast Guard, then returned back to where they had set out from, at Moomomi Beach on the northwest side of Molokai.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to pick up the stranded hunters Saturday night, but deteriorating weather did not allow the rescue team to complete their mission, and the helicopter left to return to Oahu at 11:30 p.m.

At 10:20 a.m. Sunday morning, the fire department’s Air 1 helicopter with a Kahului rescue crew aboard, located the three hunters on the beach at Pelekunu Valley and airlifted them to the Hoolehua Fire Station.

All three were in good health and did not require any medical attention.

The hunter’s said they will go back to retrieve the nine dogs that were left behind after weather and ocean conditions improve.