These are the results of the US Navy detonating remnant WWII era bombs inside Maui’s coral reef jewel, Molokini. It seems too dramatic, too made-for-tv drama, or some long ago event before we knew better, right? No. These are the accounts of dozens of Maui residents who were witness to this action in 1984, and without intervention from the community is was scheduled to happen again in July 2020.

Public safety is everyone’s top priority, however no known incidents of spontaneous explosion from ordnance in the water have ever been recorded in Hawaii. This ordnance has been resting without incident at depth at Molokini for over 70 years. Just feet away is a spectacular, living, coral reef thousands of years old. And yet multiple State officials told us that there’s no other way except to blow it up. Destruction of the nearby reef is a certainty and it would never recover -- lost forever. How could this have been our best plan in the year 2020? We have got to do better.

Words cannot express the devastation in the same way that photos can. Read this well-researched article and see for yourself in historical context and graphic photos why it is essential that we act now.