[July 11] RIMPAC blowing up our sea turtles! (Fwd)

[아름드리 나무]

(Fwd by Koohan Paik)

Fw: RIMPAC blowing up our sea turtles! Video proof. Do you even care?

The following letter, lamenting the terrifying impacts on marine life by RIMPAC war exercises, is from ocean enthusiast Terry Lilley, of Kauai, to his Congressional representative, Tulsi Gabbard. Ironically, Gabbard's web site (http://gabbard.house.gov) prominently features sea turtles to ostensibly show how connected she is to Hawaii's environment .

On Friday, July 11,  Terry Lilley wrote:

Aloha Tulsi Gabbard,

Your RIMPAC war games today destroyed a bunch of green sea turtles that I know personally. They are part of my family and the one young female that got her fins blown off today, I named after my grand daughter Leilah, because she loves sea turtles. She is one out of many mangled turtles that came to me today seeking help.

I am now taking this very personally and going to pursue this death to the extent of the laws in the USA. To me this is murder!

Try looking at someone you love with their legs blown off just like you must have seen in Iraq. It is not a pretty sight and it can melt you to the core of your heart.

RIMPAC does not have the clearance under the Endangered Species Act to kill sea turtles! They also do not have an Incidental Take Permit to kill the endangered blue rice coral of which is totally being destroyed right now along the entire north shore of Kauai! 

The RIMPAC folks supported by you and other out of touch politicians do NOT have permission under US law to kill sea turtles!

Yes, you have permission to kill whales and dolphin, but not sea turtles and blue rice corals!

Today the US military is so proud of its blowing up of ships off the coast of Kauai as you seem to think this is going to protect us here in Kauai from North Korea.

This is such bizarre thinking. Why destroy our environment only to protect it? There is no logic in this what so ever.

Your military is totally dissolving our reefs here in Kauai and now blowing up the feet of our sea turtles! I am not an alarmist! I have thousands of hours underwater video to show what is happening to our reefs and marine life her in Kauai. NO one has even bothered to review the video!

I dive Tunnels reef hundreds of times each year. At 5:00 in the evening this time of year over 20 sea turtles come into the shallow reef to feed on limu. I have taken hundreds of people out to see this wonderful event including the Editor of The Garden Island News only a week ago! He got to visit with the Honu I know, each by name that got blown away today!

Today, not one of these endangered turtles made it back to the inner reef to feed. Not one!

It is ILLEGAL under US law to alter the feeding, breeding and behavior of ANY Endangered Species! This law has been upheld in the supreme court and even yourself and Obama cannot violate it!

I was blown away but knew your military explosions and war games were going one so I snorkeled out to the outer reefs only to see the turtles I love blown apart!

Tulsi, if you have even one percent of your being that cares about the reef and marine life then please stop this madness.

You may have seen a friend of yours blown away in Iraq and that would only be natural to have a major impact on your life. You may be very angry about, that but don't take it out on my family!

Well today I got to see one of my very special friends that I named my grand daughter after, get blown away with her feet gone! Just like stepping on a land mine in Iraq.

She is dying right now and I am having a hard time explaining to her why you and others want to blow her away in the name of protecting her!

Can you please give me an answer from your crazy government, so I can take it to her tonight before she passes on to another world?

On top of the turtles being blown apart the fish are also going crazy. I have video of this to share with the world. Maybe someone in Hawaii in power will figure out what destruction our military is doing that cannot be repaired for hundreds of years if ever!

Only one week ago I took the editor of the Garden island News out to see the reef destruction at Tunnels and since then there are hundreds of new massive cyanobacterial infections killing the very few remaining corals!

What more does any logical person need to see, to realize  your electronic warfare on Kauai is killing Kauai! Do you need for tourist to drop dead on the beach to get a grip?

No, I cannot prove it. Yet! But when I do I can only hope that nature will be kind and forgiving on the people who are destroying her here in Kauai.

No need to do a spin on reality. I am VERY used to this! Just try to prove me wrong. I know quite well that the powers to be that bring in millions of dollars to Hawaii will say " Mister Lilley is just a flaky surfer an does not have a PHD so he cannot be presenting the facts as he is not qualified. Even Carl Berg from Surfrider will claim that I went out and bit the fins off of my favorite sea turtle.

I am VERY qualified to hold a video camera and receive images from nature. It is up to you folks  to deal with the images and do something good with it!

Just go out tomorrow to view the reef destruction with me and see for yourself!

Aloha,

Terry