HONOLULU (KHON2) — Traveling to Hawaiʻi is about to get a high-tech upgrade. A new pilot program aims to ditch the pen and paper currently used to declare plants and animals.
For years, travelers to Hawaiʻi have been required to fill out a paper declaration form, listing any live plants or animals they’re bringing to the state, with the goal of protecting the islands’ delicate ecosystem.
“These creatures, which are very scary, especially this one, should not be coming into Hawaiʻi,” said Gov. Josh Green while pointing to a tarantula in a tank next to him.
Now the paper ag declaration form is getting an overhaul, making fumbling for a pen at 35,000 feet no more.
“We all know the best time to let a passenger know what not to bring into the state is before they get on the plane. Not when they’re scurrying through their baggage to look for a pencil and then, oops, I got a ferret. Oops, I brought in live plants,” said Sen. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Beginning March 1, select flights on most domestic airlines that fly to Hawaiʻi will participate in the three month long pilot program.
“Akamai Arrival” has the same questions as the paper form and will be accessible on both laptops and smartphones. Travelers will fill out the form electronically before landing.
State Department of Agriculture inspectors will review the manifest compared to the number of completed declaration forms and similar to the paper form, the data will be deleted.
“It’s going to be helpful for our state, but most importantly, it’s our biosecurity weapon,” Green said.
Some passengers, like Cheryl Engle from Michigan, welcome the change.
“It was a little bit of a pain, we didn’t have a pen on us. We didn’t have anything to write on,” Engle said.
The state says it’s hoping the digital form will also help increase compliance, which currently is around a 60% completion rate.
As for the effectiveness of the declaration form in stopping invasive species, the Department of Agriculture says about 75% of all flights coming in have something to declare, but it’s not easy to catch everything sneaking into the islands.
“We’re getting those types of animals maybe one or two a year. I would say regulated goods, things that require permits or treatments beforehand, you’re probably getting one per day,” said Jonathan Ho, HDOA Branch Manager.
Wakai says he hopes to use the approximately $800,000 saved from going paperless to buy ag sniffing dogs to do more to keep invasive species out of the islands.
“Zero. Not one person in 79 years has ever been prosecuted. What does that tell you? It tells you that the ag form is really not keeping bad things out of our community,” Wakai said.
For now, the state says they eventually plan to add more languages to the form and the valuable tourism survey will be included. For more information, visit the Akamai Arrival website.