Tourism Hawaii

Passengers clad in short-sleeve shirts, shorts and thongs pressed their faces to the portholes of the submarine as it glided 100 feet beneath the surface. What they saw was a reef swarming with marine species. Moray eels skimmed over the deck of a sunken ship and peered from cubbyholes stern to prow.

Not far off the coast of Waikiki, where thousands would splash in the surf the next day, a series of meat hooks baited with freshly killed tuna dangled beneath the night sea. Hawaii had reluctantly embarked on another shark hunt, hoping to catch nothing and put an end to persistent claims--mostly from surfers--that tiger sharks had become a menace off the heavily populated south shore of Oahu.

The archer, stalking his quarry, creeps around a rock, draws his bow, takes aim, releases and scores a perfect shot on . . . a fish? It isn't hunting, and it really isn't fishing. It's bowfishing, Hawaiian style. Bowfishing isn't unknown elsewhere. In California, for instance, archers may shoot skates, rays and sharks and many non-game fish, including carp.

The tread of Hurricane Iniki still shows in the boarded-up buildings, wrecked homes and blue tarps covering many a roof here on Kauai. But houses are being rebuilt, utilities have been restored and about a third of the tourist-oriented condominiums and hotels have reopened. And the landscape that earned Kauai its "Garden Island" designation has made a remarkable comeback since its whipping by Iniki's 160-m.p.h. winds. Sugar cane stands tall, feathery tassels nodding to each other in the breeze.

While the full fury of Hurricane Iniki struck the island of Kauai, the storm's shock waves also swept through the Westlake Village headquarters of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays. Workers at the largest Hawaiian tour company have been showing up at 6 a.m. to find telephone switchboards already jammed with incoming calls from concerned Kauai-bound travelers, who now have no place to stay on the island. About 3,500 Pleasant Hawaiian customers were to visit Kauai this week.

When Ida Alkire and her family moved last month from their Seattle home to this place they call the Garden Island, she thought little of hurricanes. This was her slice of paradise. Then she met Iniki. For several terrifying hours last Friday, Alkire and her son coiled under a bathroom sink. Her husband and two other children huddled beneath mattresses in a bedroom closet. They were 10 yards apart but could not hear each other shout in the howling wind.

Tourists fled the once-plush hotels of this resort town in chartered boats and helicopters Sunday as food and water supplies dwindled on the hurricane-devastated island of Kauai. Because the island remained without electricity or running water two days after Hurricane Iniki hit, those left behind used buckets of water from swimming pools and the ocean to flush their toilets.

When Hurricane Iniki swept through the popular resort island of Kauai on Friday night, it leveled buildings, severed communications and may have blown away travel promoters' chances of boosting Hawaii's already sagging tourism industry. Hawaii could lose $250 million of tourism revenue projected for the remainder of the year, Paul Lawler, spokesman for the Honolulu-based Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said Saturday.

Travelers found themselves stranded Friday night at airports in Los Angeles and San Francisco as airlines canceled flights to Hawaii because of Hurricane Iniki. While a few planes left the mainland for Honolulu on Friday morning, United, American, Hawaiian and Northwest airlines all canceled their afternoon and evening flights to the islands. John Waidly, a resident of Oahu, sat quietly on a bench at Los Angeles International Airport, his hands clasped in front of him.

Late last year, Martha Morrell was snorkeling with a friend in the tranquil waters near her Maui home when a 15-foot tiger shark slammed into her. A few horrible moments later, she was dead, her legs and right arm severed from her body. In February, a surfer disappeared near Waimea Bay after a shark was spotted in the area. Only his bodyboard, sliced by a shark's jaws, was recovered. Just weeks ago, a Kauai surfer was knocked off her board when a shark took a swipe at it.