Hawaii plans to revive a Beach and Water Safety Task Force that has not met since 2012, state officials said, as the state faces criticism for a long gap in placing warning signs at dangerous beaches. The effort is expected to restart a process that helps identify where warnings are needed along Hawaii’s coast, which stretches for about 1,000 miles.
AP reports that about 800 people have drowned in the waters off Hawaii’s coastline in the last decade, and that the state has not called for a single new warning sign to be put up on a beach in more than 13 years. Water safety advocates have said more needs to be done, particularly as more people frequent remote stretches of coastline with little to warn them of risks.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is planning to revive the task force, which is charged with putting up warning signs at dangerous beaches. Kirsten Hermstad, executive director of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association, called the change “a huge win,” saying the state is listening, considers the work important and is letting lifeguards do their job.
The announcement comes amid broader steps in Hawaii aimed at reducing drowning deaths. The Hawaii Water Safety Coalition released the state’s first Water Safety Plan last year, and AP says the Department of Health has increased investment and staffing for drowning prevention. The state and nonprofits are also funding more swimming lessons, noting that about half of Hawaii’s children do not know how to swim and that drowning is the leading cause of death for children under 15.
Families who have lost loved ones said the task force’s restart is welcome but leaves lingering frustration. Rachel Able, whose daughter Lily died in 2022 after a surfing accident at a Big Island beach that did not have warning signs, said it is meaningful to learn of the progress just days before what would have been Lily’s 19th birthday. Able also questioned why public pressure is required after tragedies, saying, “Why does it take the public coming out and speaking up for these things after tragedies happen for these things to be reevaluated?”
Hawaii has a legal mandate involving warning signs at state and county beach parks, including hazards such as strong rip currents and powerful waves, AP said. But the warning-sign system has been criticized as limited and slow to adjust: a Civil Beat investigation reported last year that Hawaii’s interventions have been fragmented and that proactive efforts and significant investments have been lacking, especially for residents.
The task force was originally created to evaluate risks at each beach and help determine where signs indicating dangerous shorebreaks and strong currents should be placed. Under the law, the requirement applies to state and county beach parks, leaving out some popular beaches, tourist attractions and remote rocky cliffs frequented by fishermen. AP reports that the initiative was unfunded and that maintaining signs and reevaluating where new ones should go did not become a top priority; the last time the task force met was in 2012, according to reports submitted to the Legislature.
Rep. David Tarnas, who opposed proposals over the years to disband the task force, said, “It’s clear it was not a priority.” He said he is frustrated the task force had not met for years, which he linked to a lack of support from officials at DLNR, and added, “I think it was a lost opportunity.”
Alan Carpenter, acting administrator for the division in charge of state parks, said he is more focused on preventing deaths than on liability concerns. Carpenter said, “I’m far more interested in keeping people safe than I am about liability,” and added, “Signs protect against liability. That’s great, but who cares?” He said, “We don’t want people dying in our waters or in our streams. That’s the most important thing.”
AP reports that even after decades of warning-sign placement, the scope remains limited relative to Hawaii’s coastline. Carpenter said about 150 signs cover only a fraction of the more than 1,000 miles of coastline, with signs placed across seven official state beach parks totaling about 3,000 acres. He said the count includes 28 signs on Oahu, about 26 on the Big Island and 95 on Kauai. He also said the task force had not recommended any new signs at additional beaches in more than a decade, according to Civil Beat’s findings.
While the task force had not been meeting, DLNR supported bills in 2021 and again in 2024 to dissolve it, arguing that hanging signs in dangerous spots had become standard practice. Ocean safety experts and bereaved families said that perspective does not fully capture the need for coordination and updated prevention efforts. Able said the beach where Lily died became more popular after a new road improved access, around the time the task force stopped meeting. She said it is “more about committing to coordination, accountability and prevention” and asked how safety measures can be kept in place going forward.
Behind the scenes, the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association encouraged DLNR to bring back the task force, AP said. In December, the department told lawmakers it intended to reinstate it. Carpenter said the state agreed to play if counties and lifeguards believed it was necessary, while also saying the system should be amended.
Carpenter said he wants counties to take the lead and wants warnings handled “more in the hands of the experts who are out there every day.” Hermstad said her organization has volunteered to take over operation of the task force. The two officials and lawmakers also discussed whether state law should change to better cover places that have become destinations beyond state and county beach parks, including as social media draws people to remote areas. Tarnas suggested the task force could advise modifying the statute so it encompasses those locations, while Hermstad said her first priority is getting the task force back on track and meeting again.
Jessamy Town Hornor, a long-time ocean safety advocate and co-founder of the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition, said the effort needs to do more on prevention and also incorporate more actionable warning technology. Hornor, whose family experienced a fatal ocean incident in 2016, said, “Just as a static sign, it simply does not adequately convey the variability of that location that it could look perfectly safe to swim in and become a death trap, really, in an instant.”
Hornor said the coalition’s goal is to move beyond static warnings by using newer approaches such as geofencing that can alert people’s cell phones, live-condition alerts and QR codes that direct people to weigh risks using real-time information. She said fulfilling the duty to warn should be the baseline and added, “We need to do more on the prevention side,” and “That truly should be the mission of this effort.”