Honolulu Reporter

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Congressman Ed Case (Hawai‘i – District 1) will join the arrival of the Hōkūleʻa at Auke Bay in Juneau this Saturday as the iconic Polynesian voyaging canoe and crew continue their historic circumnavigation of the Pacific.

“Our country is a Pacific nation, and together with my home state of Hawai‘i

and the rest of our Pacific Islands ‘ohana, we continue to embrace this historic journey by the Polynesian Voyaging Society as Hōkūleʻa pursues its four-year voyage around our Earth’s largest ocean and our cultural home,” said Case.

Case, a member of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources and its Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, with jurisdiction over U.S. oceans policy, will welcome the Hōkūleʻa when the voyaging canoe arrives at Auke Bay in Juneau. The bay sits on the traditional lands of the A’akw Kwáan – the “Small Lake People” – said to be the first peoples to inhabit the area north and south of Juneau.  

Prior to welcoming Hōkūleʻa, Case will tour U.S. Coast Base Seattle and Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound, both in Washington State, as well as Coast Guard Stations Juneau and Sitka in Alaska.

“As a member of our House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security, with jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, I am responsible for overseeing and funding the worldwide capabilities and activities of this unique service charged with our nation’s maritime security, search and rescue and law enforcement duties. This is especially important at this time of heightened focus on the Indo-Pacific,” said Case.

Aside from touring land facilities and meeting with Guardsmen, Case will join Coast Guard cutters at sea and a MH-60 helicopter crew out of Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, from where the recent operation was staged to locate and rescue five people onboard a charter fishing boat that sank off the coast. The bodies of three people were recovered, two of whom were identified as a husband and wife who were residents of Waipahu, and the remaining two are still missing and presumed lost.

Original source can be found here.