(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly break, break off, crack, carve upon, write, burn, or otherwise mark upon, remove, or in any manner destroy, disturb, deface, mar, or harm the surfaces of any cave, or the cave resources within the cave, whether attached or broken, including speleothems, speleogens, and sedimentary deposits, without the owner‘s written permission being first obtained.

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-2

  • Cave: means any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnected passages large enough for human entry, occurring beneath the surface of the earth or within a cliff or ledge, including the cave resources therein, whether or not an entrance exists or is natural or artificial, and that is of archaeological, geological, biological, or cultural significance. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-1
  • Construction context: means all permitted land-altering activities necessary to construct any and all manner of improvements on the surface of a property including but not limited to foundations, basements, roads, and buildings. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-1
  • Gate: means any structure or device located to limit, control, or prohibit access to, or entry to, any portion of a cave. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-1
  • Owner: means the persons who hold title to or are in possession of the land on or under which a cave is located, or the persons' lessee or agent. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-1
  • Paleontological deposit: means any remains or fossils of life forms or surface debris that are over fifty years of age and provide a record of past climates and biota. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 6D-1
(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to break, force, tamper with, or otherwise disturb a gate to any cave, even though entrance thereto may not be gained, without the owner’s permission being first obtained.
(c) It shall be unlawful for any person to remove, deface, or tamper with a sign stating that a cave is posted or citing provisions of this chapter.
(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to take, appropriate, excavate, injure, destroy, or alter any paleontological deposit, which may be found in a cave without the owner’s written permission being first obtained.
(e) This section shall not apply to caves inadvertently encountered within the normal course of a construction context; provided that any cave protection measures imposed through the environmental review process under chapter 343 or any land use permit conditions shall be followed.

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