Complaint Review: In Heart Productions Koa Creech Dw Creech Phil Sharples

The Maui News 1999.

By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
LAHAINA -- D.W. Creech, who likes to be called Dr. Creech, started Creechers of the Sea in Lahaina earlier this year to pursue marine cancer research, and he says he has discovered a number of wholly unsuspected problems in the waters of West and South Maui.

On the basis of those claims, he is planning to go to the community in December to raise money for his nonprofit foundation, Ka'ua Foundation, and support for his for-profit business, Creechers of the Sea.

Creech refused to be specific about his scientific claims, saying he was saving the details for a press release to be issued before the fund-raiser.

But some of his other claims were specific. And they don't check out.

He says he is a neurologist who completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals.

The university's College of Medicine says it has no record of Creech as an undergraduate, medical student, resident or fellow in any of its branches.

Creech insists he was there. But the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners reports that Creech was never licensed as a physician in the state, which would have been a requirement to be a resident at University Hospitals in Iowa City.

He also says he got his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg.

A spokesman for that school explained that German privacy laws prohibit universities from revealing who got degrees without the graduate's permission. When Creech was asked the formal name of the university, which is Karl-Rupprecht University, he could not name it. He did not respond to an invitation to give the German school permission to reveal his degree.

Creech received a warm welcome from boat owners, hoteliers, restaurateurs and other Lahaina people concerned with the environment when he set up shop in an office behind Kobe Japanese Steak House early this year.

Two people said they spent "hours" listening to Creech's concerns about the environment. But they quickly became suspicious of Creech's background and/or intentions.

One was the manager of a hotel Creech stayed at for a while, the other was Randy Coon of Trilogy Excursions, who allowed Creech to go out with video, snorkel or dive gear on some of his boats.

"I spent quite a bit of time with him," says Coon, and gave him free access to the Trilogy catamarans.

Creech was "looking for a partner to help sponsor his research."

Coon did not give money but he did give boat trips. That stopped when Coon, already suspicious, found out that Creech was "recruiting some of my female crew."

Coon heard that Creech was offering jobs on a 120-foot research vessel that was supposed to arrive this summer. It has not showed up yet, although Creech is promising it will be here in December or January. People who interviewed for jobs with Creech say they were told about the sailing vessel, though its length varied from 95 feet up.

Coon says Creech told him that he got his medical training in California, though when Coon checked into that he could not find anything to confirm it.

Later, when The Maui News asked Creech to provide references, he named the chief of medicine at Stanford University hospitals, Dr. Judith Swain. Swain says she never heard of him.

Other people who had early dealings with Creech were at five Maui companies that are listed as "Maui Partners" on his Creechers of the Sea brochure.

Of four that could be contacted, all said they were unaware of being listed in the brochure. Three, Dive Maui, Maui Recycling Service and Sunrise Cafe, reported that Creech is a customer and they have no complaints about him.

Kobe Japanese Steak House, on the other hand, does not want to be associated with Creechers of the Sea and quit serving Creech when he failed to pay his bill.

(According to his accountant, Mimi Hu, Creech has applied for 501-c-3 status with the IRS as a nonprofit. Ka'ua has not received a "designation" letter confirming the tax status, but it normally takes 120 days or longer, she says. The status would be retroactive if granted.)

Part of Creech's spiel is a claim that he knows what is causing the fibropapilloma tumor disease in green sea turtles.

Because Creech presented himself as a turtle researcher, Hannah Bernard, who directs Trilogy's marine education program and is a well-known turtle advocate on Maui, set up a meeting between local turtle experts and the new man, Creech.

But he didn't show up.

That was also the experience of Randy Awo of the Maui office of Conservation and Resource Enforcement of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Awo says Creech "called me two months ago to inform me he was doing research diving and surveys."

Creech told a reporter his photography does not involve touching the animals, which include turtles, whales and porpoises, all protected species. (But in job interviews, he asked applicants if they would take skin samples, and said he knew how to get around the laws that forbid close approaches to endangered sea mammals without a permit.)

Awo says Creech told him he had observed violations of the close approach rule by tour boats. Awo asked Creech to come in and learn how to pursue such allegations and also "to just talk story" about any permits Creech might need for his research.

"He never showed up," says Awo.

Some types of research, even if the animals are not touched, require "observational" permits. On Oct. 8, Creech wrote a letter to the DLNR asking for an exemption from the permit rules to allow him to film a humpback whale giving birth.

When the National Marine Fisheries Service heard about that, it opened an investigation, which continues. Victor Honda, an enforcement officer, said the request was of a nature that raised concerns about potential violations of the endangered species rules.

Honda has contacted Creech by telephone and scheduled a personal interview with him early next month.

Creech's statements about the results of his research, while vague, are alarming.

For example, he said that "saturation testing" of waters off Lahaina had revealed "natural minerals in unnatural amounts" and "neurotoxins."

But he would not name the neurotoxin or supply the data, saying he was saving that for his December publicity drive.

When asked whether the neurotoxin was something in nature or man-made, he said, "All neurotoxins are manufactured."

A number of scientists were amazed by that statement, reeling off many natural sources of neurotoxin in Hawaii's waters, including jellyfish and limu. Sea turtle researcher George Balazs, Bernard and ecologist Carl Berg Sr. all said many natural neurotoxins are produced in Hawaii's waters.

Physicians were equally amazed by one of Creech's scariest claims, that a sample of human feces taken from waters off an unnamed South Maui resort contained "live AIDS virus."

Dr. Ronald Kwon, a Maui physician who treats AIDS patients, said he would be skeptical that live HIV virus would be found in floating feces, for two reasons.

First, HIV is found in mucosa, not usually in feces, unless some mucus got mixed with it. Second, the virus is so fragile outside the human body that it would not survive long in the ocean.

Several physicians, including Dr. Cecilia Shikuma, assistant professor of medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, agreed that HIV virus would not survive for the length of time it would take to deliver it from Maui waters to a Mainland laboratory.

In a solicitation letter sent out by the Ka'ua Foundation, Creech says his samples have been sent to private, unnamed labs in California and Georgia.

Shikuma, who directs the AIDS clinical research program at U.H., says no such feces sample has ever been submitted in Hawaii for HIV testing.

Though Creech has kept his distance from credentialed scientists, a number of them say that his allegations are incorrect.

For example, Creech says that the tumor disease of green sea turtles is "not a cancer." He claims that conventional scientific opinion regards the tumors as cancers.

Creech claims the real cause of the tumors is an infection of Herpes zoster, the human chickenpox virus.

Bernard says researchers do not believe the tumors are cancerous; in fact, they are sure they are not.

Balazs, leader of marine turtle research in Hawaii for the National Marine Fisheries Service, says researchers already knew that the fibropapilloma tumors are not cancerous, though they can be fatal.

Scientists have not proved what causes the disease yet, but they have four prime suspects: a naturally occurring biotoxin that turtles may ingest with alga, and three viruses known from the tumors, a retrovirus, a papillomavirus and an alphaherpesvirus.

Laboratories in the Unites States and Europe are trying to identify definitely which viruses these are, but human chickenpox is not a suspect.

But if Creech has data to contradict the orthodox view, "any serious scientist would make a discovery and publish it," Bernard says.

While Creech denies the turtles have cancer, he also asserts that sharks do have it, showing a picture of a great white shark with some kind of injury or lesion on its upper jaw.

And, he adds, "Sharks are not supposed to have cancer, they're cartilage animals. But this shark is dying of cancer."

Balazs, who also keeps track of shark attacks in Hawaii, says that is incorrect. A number of types of cancer are known to afflict sharks.

Creech claims in his Ka'ua literature that he is developing methods of photography and software that would allow him to diagnose cancers in marine animals without contact.

He says this has obvious implications for human disease.

Dr. Bobby Baker, a Maui cancer specialist, says it already is possible to find a tumor by a non-invasive process -- the MRI scan is one.

However, says Baker, the scan cannot reveal the type of cancer and other information. That still requires tests of the cells.

Creech's many allegations add up to a prediction of ecological catastrophe not only in Maui waters but in the oceans at large. He wrote in a Ka'ua solicitation letter, "Pollutants and chemicals found off shores have infiltrated this once-resilient ecosystem throughout the planet. We are at a point of no return."

Berg, a Kauai ecologist and a member of the advisory board of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, calls those sentiments overblown as regards Hawaii.

Berg says he has never met Creech, but of his statements regarding AIDS or neurotoxins, "none of them are substantiated from an ecological point of view. I would want to see some of the proof he has ...

"If he wants to send it to me, I will be glad to review it as a scientist."

Though there are problems to be addressed in Maui's environment, Berg says, "I don't know of any evidence we're in danger of imminent, massive pollution."

Berg said that alarmist, unconfirmed reports are a danger in themselves. "Sky-is-falling reports take away from effects that are serious and need monitoring," he says.

He says that the West Maui Watershed Task Force, which was established to look into unwanted seaweed growth, did "a good job" of educating the West Maui community to real environmental conditions, and that spreading unverified information about such things as neurotoxins and AIDS is "unconscionable."

The Maui News 1999.

By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
LAHAINA -- D.W. Creech, who likes to be called Dr. Creech, started Creechers of the Sea in Lahaina earlier this year to pursue marine cancer research, and he says he has discovered a number of wholly unsuspected problems in the waters of West and South Maui.

On the basis of those claims, he is planning to go to the community in December to raise money for his nonprofit foundation, Ka'ua Foundation, and support for his for-profit business, Creechers of the Sea.

Creech refused to be specific about his scientific claims, saying he was saving the details for a press release to be issued before the fund-raiser.

But some of his other claims were specific. And they don't check out.

He says he is a neurologist who completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals.

The university's College of Medicine says it has no record of Creech as an undergraduate, medical student, resident or fellow in any of its branches.

Creech insists he was there. But the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners reports that Creech was never licensed as a physician in the state, which would have been a requirement to be a resident at University Hospitals in Iowa City.

He also says he got his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg.

A spokesman for that school explained that German privacy laws prohibit universities from revealing who got degrees without the graduate's permission. When Creech was asked the formal name of the university, which is Karl-Rupprecht University, he could not name it. He did not respond to an invitation to give the German school permission to reveal his degree.

Creech received a warm welcome from boat owners, hoteliers, restaurateurs and other Lahaina people concerned with the environment when he set up shop in an office behind Kobe Japanese Steak House early this year.

Two people said they spent "hours" listening to Creech's concerns about the environment. But they quickly became suspicious of Creech's background and/or intentions.

One was the manager of a hotel Creech stayed at for a while, the other was Randy Coon of Trilogy Excursions, who allowed Creech to go out with video, snorkel or dive gear on some of his boats.

"I spent quite a bit of time with him," says Coon, and gave him free access to the Trilogy catamarans.

Creech was "looking for a partner to help sponsor his research."

Coon did not give money but he did give boat trips. That stopped when Coon, already suspicious, found out that Creech was "recruiting some of my female crew."

Coon heard that Creech was offering jobs on a 120-foot research vessel that was supposed to arrive this summer. It has not showed up yet, although Creech is promising it will be here in December or January. People who interviewed for jobs with Creech say they were told about the sailing vessel, though its length varied from 95 feet up.

Coon says Creech told him that he got his medical training in California, though when Coon checked into that he could not find anything to confirm it.

Later, when The Maui News asked Creech to provide references, he named the chief of medicine at Stanford University hospitals, Dr. Judith Swain. Swain says she never heard of him.

Other people who had early dealings with Creech were at five Maui companies that are listed as "Maui Partners" on his Creechers of the Sea brochure.

Of four that could be contacted, all said they were unaware of being listed in the brochure. Three, Dive Maui, Maui Recycling Service and Sunrise Cafe, reported that Creech is a customer and they have no complaints about him.

Kobe Japanese Steak House, on the other hand, does not want to be associated with Creechers of the Sea and quit serving Creech when he failed to pay his bill.

(According to his accountant, Mimi Hu, Creech has applied for 501-c-3 status with the IRS as a nonprofit. Ka'ua has not received a "designation" letter confirming the tax status, but it normally takes 120 days or longer, she says. The status would be retroactive if granted.)

Part of Creech's spiel is a claim that he knows what is causing the fibropapilloma tumor disease in green sea turtles.

Because Creech presented himself as a turtle researcher, Hannah Bernard, who directs Trilogy's marine education program and is a well-known turtle advocate on Maui, set up a meeting between local turtle experts and the new man, Creech.

But he didn't show up.

That was also the experience of Randy Awo of the Maui office of Conservation and Resource Enforcement of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Awo says Creech "called me two months ago to inform me he was doing research diving and surveys."

Creech told a reporter his photography does not involve touching the animals, which include turtles, whales and porpoises, all protected species. (But in job interviews, he asked applicants if they would take skin samples, and said he knew how to get around the laws that forbid close approaches to endangered sea mammals without a permit.)

Awo says Creech told him he had observed violations of the close approach rule by tour boats. Awo asked Creech to come in and learn how to pursue such allegations and also "to just talk story" about any permits Creech might need for his research.

"He never showed up," says Awo.

Some types of research, even if the animals are not touched, require "observational" permits. On Oct. 8, Creech wrote a letter to the DLNR asking for an exemption from the permit rules to allow him to film a humpback whale giving birth.

When the National Marine Fisheries Service heard about that, it opened an investigation, which continues. Victor Honda, an enforcement officer, said the request was of a nature that raised concerns about potential violations of the endangered species rules.

Honda has contacted Creech by telephone and scheduled a personal interview with him early next month.

Creech's statements about the results of his research, while vague, are alarming.

For example, he said that "saturation testing" of waters off Lahaina had revealed "natural minerals in unnatural amounts" and "neurotoxins."

But he would not name the neurotoxin or supply the data, saying he was saving that for his December publicity drive.

When asked whether the neurotoxin was something in nature or man-made, he said, "All neurotoxins are manufactured."

A number of scientists were amazed by that statement, reeling off many natural sources of neurotoxin in Hawaii's waters, including jellyfish and limu. Sea turtle researcher George Balazs, Bernard and ecologist Carl Berg Sr. all said many natural neurotoxins are produced in Hawaii's waters.

Physicians were equally amazed by one of Creech's scariest claims, that a sample of human feces taken from waters off an unnamed South Maui resort contained "live AIDS virus."

Dr. Ronald Kwon, a Maui physician who treats AIDS patients, said he would be skeptical that live HIV virus would be found in floating feces, for two reasons.

First, HIV is found in mucosa, not usually in feces, unless some mucus got mixed with it. Second, the virus is so fragile outside the human body that it would not survive long in the ocean.

Several physicians, including Dr. Cecilia Shikuma, assistant professor of medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, agreed that HIV virus would not survive for the length of time it would take to deliver it from Maui waters to a Mainland laboratory.

In a solicitation letter sent out by the Ka'ua Foundation, Creech says his samples have been sent to private, unnamed labs in California and Georgia.

Shikuma, who directs the AIDS clinical research program at U.H., says no such feces sample has ever been submitted in Hawaii for HIV testing.

Though Creech has kept his distance from credentialed scientists, a number of them say that his allegations are incorrect.

For example, Creech says that the tumor disease of green sea turtles is "not a cancer." He claims that conventional scientific opinion regards the tumors as cancers.

Creech claims the real cause of the tumors is an infection of Herpes zoster, the human chickenpox virus.

Bernard says researchers do not believe the tumors are cancerous; in fact, they are sure they are not.

Balazs, leader of marine turtle research in Hawaii for the National Marine Fisheries Service, says researchers already knew that the fibropapilloma tumors are not cancerous, though they can be fatal.

Scientists have not proved what causes the disease yet, but they have four prime suspects: a naturally occurring biotoxin that turtles may ingest with alga, and three viruses known from the tumors, a retrovirus, a papillomavirus and an alphaherpesvirus.

Laboratories in the Unites States and Europe are trying to identify definitely which viruses these are, but human chickenpox is not a suspect.

But if Creech has data to contradict the orthodox view, "any serious scientist would make a discovery and publish it," Bernard says.

While Creech denies the turtles have cancer, he also asserts that sharks do have it, showing a picture of a great white shark with some kind of injury or lesion on its upper jaw.

And, he adds, "Sharks are not supposed to have cancer, they're cartilage animals. But this shark is dying of cancer."

Balazs, who also keeps track of shark attacks in Hawaii, says that is incorrect. A number of types of cancer are known to afflict sharks.

Creech claims in his Ka'ua literature that he is developing methods of photography and software that would allow him to diagnose cancers in marine animals without contact.

He says this has obvious implications for human disease.

Dr. Bobby Baker, a Maui cancer specialist, says it already is possible to find a tumor by a non-invasive process -- the MRI scan is one.

However, says Baker, the scan cannot reveal the type of cancer and other information. That still requires tests of the cells.

Creech's many allegations add up to a prediction of ecological catastrophe not only in Maui waters but in the oceans at large. He wrote in a Ka'ua solicitation letter, "Pollutants and chemicals found off shores have infiltrated this once-resilient ecosystem throughout the planet. We are at a point of no return."

Berg, a Kauai ecologist and a member of the advisory board of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, calls those sentiments overblown as regards Hawaii.

Berg says he has never met Creech, but of his statements regarding AIDS or neurotoxins, "none of them are substantiated from an ecological point of view. I would want to see some of the proof he has ...

"If he wants to send it to me, I will be glad to review it as a scientist."

Though there are problems to be addressed in Maui's environment, Berg says, "I don't know of any evidence we're in danger of imminent, massive pollution."

Berg said that alarmist, unconfirmed reports are a danger in themselves. "Sky-is-falling reports take away from effects that are serious and need monitoring," he says.

He says that the West Maui Watershed Task Force, which was established to look into unwanted seaweed growth, did "a good job" of educating the West Maui community to real environmental conditions, and that spreading unverified information about such things as neurotoxins and AIDS is "unconscionable."

The Maui News 1999.

By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
LAHAINA -- D.W. Creech, who likes to be called Dr. Creech, started Creechers of the Sea in Lahaina earlier this year to pursue marine cancer research, and he says he has discovered a number of wholly unsuspected problems in the waters of West and South Maui.

On the basis of those claims, he is planning to go to the community in December to raise money for his nonprofit foundation, Ka'ua Foundation, and support for his for-profit business, Creechers of the Sea.

Creech refused to be specific about his scientific claims, saying he was saving the details for a press release to be issued before the fund-raiser.

But some of his other claims were specific. And they don't check out.

He says he is a neurologist who completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals.

The university's College of Medicine says it has no record of Creech as an undergraduate, medical student, resident or fellow in any of its branches.

Creech insists he was there. But the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners reports that Creech was never licensed as a physician in the state, which would have been a requirement to be a resident at University Hospitals in Iowa City.

He also says he got his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg.

A spokesman for that school explained that German privacy laws prohibit universities from revealing who got degrees without the graduate's permission. When Creech was asked the formal name of the university, which is Karl-Rupprecht University, he could not name it. He did not respond to an invitation to give the German school permission to reveal his degree.

Creech received a warm welcome from boat owners, hoteliers, restaurateurs and other Lahaina people concerned with the environment when he set up shop in an office behind Kobe Japanese Steak House early this year.

Two people said they spent "hours" listening to Creech's concerns about the environment. But they quickly became suspicious of Creech's background and/or intentions.

One was the manager of a hotel Creech stayed at for a while, the other was Randy Coon of Trilogy Excursions, who allowed Creech to go out with video, snorkel or dive gear on some of his boats.

"I spent quite a bit of time with him," says Coon, and gave him free access to the Trilogy catamarans.

Creech was "looking for a partner to help sponsor his research."

Coon did not give money but he did give boat trips. That stopped when Coon, already suspicious, found out that Creech was "recruiting some of my female crew."

Coon heard that Creech was offering jobs on a 120-foot research vessel that was supposed to arrive this summer. It has not showed up yet, although Creech is promising it will be here in December or January. People who interviewed for jobs with Creech say they were told about the sailing vessel, though its length varied from 95 feet up.

Coon says Creech told him that he got his medical training in California, though when Coon checked into that he could not find anything to confirm it.

Later, when The Maui News asked Creech to provide references, he named the chief of medicine at Stanford University hospitals, Dr. Judith Swain. Swain says she never heard of him.

Other people who had early dealings with Creech were at five Maui companies that are listed as "Maui Partners" on his Creechers of the Sea brochure.

Of four that could be contacted, all said they were unaware of being listed in the brochure. Three, Dive Maui, Maui Recycling Service and Sunrise Cafe, reported that Creech is a customer and they have no complaints about him.

Kobe Japanese Steak House, on the other hand, does not want to be associated with Creechers of the Sea and quit serving Creech when he failed to pay his bill.

(According to his accountant, Mimi Hu, Creech has applied for 501-c-3 status with the IRS as a nonprofit. Ka'ua has not received a "designation" letter confirming the tax status, but it normally takes 120 days or longer, she says. The status would be retroactive if granted.)

Part of Creech's spiel is a claim that he knows what is causing the fibropapilloma tumor disease in green sea turtles.

Because Creech presented himself as a turtle researcher, Hannah Bernard, who directs Trilogy's marine education program and is a well-known turtle advocate on Maui, set up a meeting between local turtle experts and the new man, Creech.

But he didn't show up.

That was also the experience of Randy Awo of the Maui office of Conservation and Resource Enforcement of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Awo says Creech "called me two months ago to inform me he was doing research diving and surveys."

Creech told a reporter his photography does not involve touching the animals, which include turtles, whales and porpoises, all protected species. (But in job interviews, he asked applicants if they would take skin samples, and said he knew how to get around the laws that forbid close approaches to endangered sea mammals without a permit.)

Awo says Creech told him he had observed violations of the close approach rule by tour boats. Awo asked Creech to come in and learn how to pursue such allegations and also "to just talk story" about any permits Creech might need for his research.

"He never showed up," says Awo.

Some types of research, even if the animals are not touched, require "observational" permits. On Oct. 8, Creech wrote a letter to the DLNR asking for an exemption from the permit rules to allow him to film a humpback whale giving birth.

When the National Marine Fisheries Service heard about that, it opened an investigation, which continues. Victor Honda, an enforcement officer, said the request was of a nature that raised concerns about potential violations of the endangered species rules.

Honda has contacted Creech by telephone and scheduled a personal interview with him early next month.

Creech's statements about the results of his research, while vague, are alarming.

For example, he said that "saturation testing" of waters off Lahaina had revealed "natural minerals in unnatural amounts" and "neurotoxins."

But he would not name the neurotoxin or supply the data, saying he was saving that for his December publicity drive.

When asked whether the neurotoxin was something in nature or man-made, he said, "All neurotoxins are manufactured."

A number of scientists were amazed by that statement, reeling off many natural sources of neurotoxin in Hawaii's waters, including jellyfish and limu. Sea turtle researcher George Balazs, Bernard and ecologist Carl Berg Sr. all said many natural neurotoxins are produced in Hawaii's waters.

Physicians were equally amazed by one of Creech's scariest claims, that a sample of human feces taken from waters off an unnamed South Maui resort contained "live AIDS virus."

Dr. Ronald Kwon, a Maui physician who treats AIDS patients, said he would be skeptical that live HIV virus would be found in floating feces, for two reasons.

First, HIV is found in mucosa, not usually in feces, unless some mucus got mixed with it. Second, the virus is so fragile outside the human body that it would not survive long in the ocean.

Several physicians, including Dr. Cecilia Shikuma, assistant professor of medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, agreed that HIV virus would not survive for the length of time it would take to deliver it from Maui waters to a Mainland laboratory.

In a solicitation letter sent out by the Ka'ua Foundation, Creech says his samples have been sent to private, unnamed labs in California and Georgia.

Shikuma, who directs the AIDS clinical research program at U.H., says no such feces sample has ever been submitted in Hawaii for HIV testing.

Though Creech has kept his distance from credentialed scientists, a number of them say that his allegations are incorrect.

For example, Creech says that the tumor disease of green sea turtles is "not a cancer." He claims that conventional scientific opinion regards the tumors as cancers.

Creech claims the real cause of the tumors is an infection of Herpes zoster, the human chickenpox virus.

Bernard says researchers do not believe the tumors are cancerous; in fact, they are sure they are not.

Balazs, leader of marine turtle research in Hawaii for the National Marine Fisheries Service, says researchers already knew that the fibropapilloma tumors are not cancerous, though they can be fatal.

Scientists have not proved what causes the disease yet, but they have four prime suspects: a naturally occurring biotoxin that turtles may ingest with alga, and three viruses known from the tumors, a retrovirus, a papillomavirus and an alphaherpesvirus.

Laboratories in the Unites States and Europe are trying to identify definitely which viruses these are, but human chickenpox is not a suspect.

But if Creech has data to contradict the orthodox view, "any serious scientist would make a discovery and publish it," Bernard says.

While Creech denies the turtles have cancer, he also asserts that sharks do have it, showing a picture of a great white shark with some kind of injury or lesion on its upper jaw.

And, he adds, "Sharks are not supposed to have cancer, they're cartilage animals. But this shark is dying of cancer."

Balazs, who also keeps track of shark attacks in Hawaii, says that is incorrect. A number of types of cancer are known to afflict sharks.

Creech claims in his Ka'ua literature that he is developing methods of photography and software that would allow him to diagnose cancers in marine animals without contact.

He says this has obvious implications for human disease.

Dr. Bobby Baker, a Maui cancer specialist, says it already is possible to find a tumor by a non-invasive process -- the MRI scan is one.

However, says Baker, the scan cannot reveal the type of cancer and other information. That still requires tests of the cells.

Creech's many allegations add up to a prediction of ecological catastrophe not only in Maui waters but in the oceans at large. He wrote in a Ka'ua solicitation letter, "Pollutants and chemicals found off shores have infiltrated this once-resilient ecosystem throughout the planet. We are at a point of no return."

Berg, a Kauai ecologist and a member of the advisory board of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, calls those sentiments overblown as regards Hawaii.

Berg says he has never met Creech, but of his statements regarding AIDS or neurotoxins, "none of them are substantiated from an ecological point of view. I would want to see some of the proof he has ...

"If he wants to send it to me, I will be glad to review it as a scientist."

Though there are problems to be addressed in Maui's environment, Berg says, "I don't know of any evidence we're in danger of imminent, massive pollution."

Berg said that alarmist, unconfirmed reports are a danger in themselves. "Sky-is-falling reports take away from effects that are serious and need monitoring," he says.

He says that the West Maui Watershed Task Force, which was established to look into unwanted seaweed growth, did "a good job" of educating the West Maui community to real environmental conditions, and that spreading unverified information about such things as neurotoxins and AIDS is "unconscionable."

The Maui News 1999.

By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
LAHAINA -- D.W. Creech, who likes to be called Dr. Creech, started Creechers of the Sea in Lahaina earlier this year to pursue marine cancer research, and he says he has discovered a number of wholly unsuspected problems in the waters of West and South Maui.

On the basis of those claims, he is planning to go to the community in December to raise money for his nonprofit foundation, Ka'ua Foundation, and support for his for-profit business, Creechers of the Sea.

Creech refused to be specific about his scientific claims, saying he was saving the details for a press release to be issued before the fund-raiser.

But some of his other claims were specific. And they don't check out.

He says he is a neurologist who completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals.

The university's College of Medicine says it has no record of Creech as an undergraduate, medical student, resident or fellow in any of its branches.

Creech insists he was there. But the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners reports that Creech was never licensed as a physician in the state, which would have been a requirement to be a resident at University Hospitals in Iowa City.

He also says he got his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg.

A spokesman for that school explained that German privacy laws prohibit universities from revealing who got degrees without the graduate's permission. When Creech was asked the formal name of the university, which is Karl-Rupprecht University, he could not name it. He did not respond to an invitation to give the German school permission to reveal his degree.

Creech received a warm welcome from boat owners, hoteliers, restaurateurs and other Lahaina people concerned with the environment when he set up shop in an office behind Kobe Japanese Steak House early this year.

Two people said they spent "hours" listening to Creech's concerns about the environment. But they quickly became suspicious of Creech's background and/or intentions.

One was the manager of a hotel Creech stayed at for a while, the other was Randy Coon of Trilogy Excursions, who allowed Creech to go out with video, snorkel or dive gear on some of his boats.

"I spent quite a bit of time with him," says Coon, and gave him free access to the Trilogy catamarans.

Creech was "looking for a partner to help sponsor his research."

Coon did not give money but he did give boat trips. That stopped when Coon, already suspicious, found out that Creech was "recruiting some of my female crew."

Coon heard that Creech was offering jobs on a 120-foot research vessel that was supposed to arrive this summer. It has not showed up yet, although Creech is promising it will be here in December or January. People who interviewed for jobs with Creech say they were told about the sailing vessel, though its length varied from 95 feet up.

Coon says Creech told him that he got his medical training in California, though when Coon checked into that he could not find anything to confirm it.

Later, when The Maui News asked Creech to provide references, he named the chief of medicine at Stanford University hospitals, Dr. Judith Swain. Swain says she never heard of him.

Other people who had early dealings with Creech were at five Maui companies that are listed as "Maui Partners" on his Creechers of the Sea brochure.

Of four that could be contacted, all said they were unaware of being listed in the brochure. Three, Dive Maui, Maui Recycling Service and Sunrise Cafe, reported that Creech is a customer and they have no complaints about him.

Kobe Japanese Steak House, on the other hand, does not want to be associated with Creechers of the Sea and quit serving Creech when he failed to pay his bill.

(According to his accountant, Mimi Hu, Creech has applied for 501-c-3 status with the IRS as a nonprofit. Ka'ua has not received a "designation" letter confirming the tax status, but it normally takes 120 days or longer, she says. The status would be retroactive if granted.)

Part of Creech's spiel is a claim that he knows what is causing the fibropapilloma tumor disease in green sea turtles.

Because Creech presented himself as a turtle researcher, Hannah Bernard, who directs Trilogy's marine education program and is a well-known turtle advocate on Maui, set up a meeting between local turtle experts and the new man, Creech.

But he didn't show up.

That was also the experience of Randy Awo of the Maui office of Conservation and Resource Enforcement of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Awo says Creech "called me two months ago to inform me he was doing research diving and surveys."

Creech told a reporter his photography does not involve touching the animals, which include turtles, whales and porpoises, all protected species. (But in job interviews, he asked applicants if they would take skin samples, and said he knew how to get around the laws that forbid close approaches to endangered sea mammals without a permit.)

Awo says Creech told him he had observed violations of the close approach rule by tour boats. Awo asked Creech to come in and learn how to pursue such allegations and also "to just talk story" about any permits Creech might need for his research.

"He never showed up," says Awo.

Some types of research, even if the animals are not touched, require "observational" permits. On Oct. 8, Creech wrote a letter to the DLNR asking for an exemption from the permit rules to allow him to film a humpback whale giving birth.

When the National Marine Fisheries Service heard about that, it opened an investigation, which continues. Victor Honda, an enforcement officer, said the request was of a nature that raised concerns about potential violations of the endangered species rules.

Honda has contacted Creech by telephone and scheduled a personal interview with him early next month.

Creech's statements about the results of his research, while vague, are alarming.

For example, he said that "saturation testing" of waters off Lahaina had revealed "natural minerals in unnatural amounts" and "neurotoxins."

But he would not name the neurotoxin or supply the data, saying he was saving that for his December publicity drive.

When asked whether the neurotoxin was something in nature or man-made, he said, "All neurotoxins are manufactured."

A number of scientists were amazed by that statement, reeling off many natural sources of neurotoxin in Hawaii's waters, including jellyfish and limu. Sea turtle researcher George Balazs, Bernard and ecologist Carl Berg Sr. all said many natural neurotoxins are produced in Hawaii's waters.

Physicians were equally amazed by one of Creech's scariest claims, that a sample of human feces taken from waters off an unnamed South Maui resort contained "live AIDS virus."

Dr. Ronald Kwon, a Maui physician who treats AIDS patients, said he would be skeptical that live HIV virus would be found in floating feces, for two reasons.

First, HIV is found in mucosa, not usually in feces, unless some mucus got mixed with it. Second, the virus is so fragile outside the human body that it would not survive long in the ocean.

Several physicians, including Dr. Cecilia Shikuma, assistant professor of medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, agreed that HIV virus would not survive for the length of time it would take to deliver it from Maui waters to a Mainland laboratory.

In a solicitation letter sent out by the Ka'ua Foundation, Creech says his samples have been sent to private, unnamed labs in California and Georgia.

Shikuma, who directs the AIDS clinical research program at U.H., says no such feces sample has ever been submitted in Hawaii for HIV testing.

Though Creech has kept his distance from credentialed scientists, a number of them say that his allegations are incorrect.

For example, Creech says that the tumor disease of green sea turtles is "not a cancer." He claims that conventional scientific opinion regards the tumors as cancers.

Creech claims the real cause of the tumors is an infection of Herpes zoster, the human chickenpox virus.

Bernard says researchers do not believe the tumors are cancerous; in fact, they are sure they are not.

Balazs, leader of marine turtle research in Hawaii for the National Marine Fisheries Service, says researchers already knew that the fibropapilloma tumors are not cancerous, though they can be fatal.

Scientists have not proved what causes the disease yet, but they have four prime suspects: a naturally occurring biotoxin that turtles may ingest with alga, and three viruses known from the tumors, a retrovirus, a papillomavirus and an alphaherpesvirus.

Laboratories in the Unites States and Europe are trying to identify definitely which viruses these are, but human chickenpox is not a suspect.

But if Creech has data to contradict the orthodox view, "any serious scientist would make a discovery and publish it," Bernard says.

While Creech denies the turtles have cancer, he also asserts that sharks do have it, showing a picture of a great white shark with some kind of injury or lesion on its upper jaw.

And, he adds, "Sharks are not supposed to have cancer, they're cartilage animals. But this shark is dying of cancer."

Balazs, who also keeps track of shark attacks in Hawaii, says that is incorrect. A number of types of cancer are known to afflict sharks.

Creech claims in his Ka'ua literature that he is developing methods of photography and software that would allow him to diagnose cancers in marine animals without contact.

He says this has obvious implications for human disease.

Dr. Bobby Baker, a Maui cancer specialist, says it already is possible to find a tumor by a non-invasive process -- the MRI scan is one.

However, says Baker, the scan cannot reveal the type of cancer and other information. That still requires tests of the cells.

Creech's many allegations add up to a prediction of ecological catastrophe not only in Maui waters but in the oceans at large. He wrote in a Ka'ua solicitation letter, "Pollutants and chemicals found off shores have infiltrated this once-resilient ecosystem throughout the planet. We are at a point of no return."

Berg, a Kauai ecologist and a member of the advisory board of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, calls those sentiments overblown as regards Hawaii.

Berg says he has never met Creech, but of his statements regarding AIDS or neurotoxins, "none of them are substantiated from an ecological point of view. I would want to see some of the proof he has ...

"If he wants to send it to me, I will be glad to review it as a scientist."

Though there are problems to be addressed in Maui's environment, Berg says, "I don't know of any evidence we're in danger of imminent, massive pollution."

Berg said that alarmist, unconfirmed reports are a danger in themselves. "Sky-is-falling reports take away from effects that are serious and need monitoring," he says.

He says that the West Maui Watershed Task Force, which was established to look into unwanted seaweed growth, did "a good job" of educating the West Maui community to real environmental conditions, and that spreading unverified information about such things as neurotoxins and AIDS is "unconscionable."

Caroline,

Let me begin by introducing myself, my name is Faye Persson of Hilo, Hawaii, not Faye Perssons. If you are going to claim you know so much about my husband and I for Gods sake at least know how to spell our name!

I don't know who the hell you are nor do I give a rat's a*s. Any person with half a brain can figure out what a scam you all are. Do you and your team honestly think that people believe what you post on this site. You can't spell, you have awful grammar and this only confirms the 6th grade education I've been reading about. You accuse Tony and me of doing all sort of stuff, yet you claim we are in jail for all of our crimes like murder, theft, extortion to name a few. Last I heard they don't have internet access in jail.

You give us way too much credit for all of the ill that is taking place in Koa's life and in the life of your production team but just know that we are only two out of many that Koa has scammed and two out of many that wants justice done. Yes, we have launched an investigation into Koa Creech, Phil Sharpless and the Ka'ua Foundation with the proper authorities both here in Hawaii and in California. Yes during the investigation people were contacted and yes information was shared. No crime there. You have written other Rip Off Reports under Boise's Own accusing Tony and I of other things. Why so passionate about this whole situation, why would someone who supposedly just came on board with IHP get involved in all of this ugliness as you put it! Don't you have a film to produce? If it's your job to keep filing police reports on us than why don't Koa just hire an attorney to do that for him, oh wait he has no money! Koa lives in a flea bag motel and his tab is paid by Phil Sharpless. I wonder if Phil's wife knows about that! Why don't Koa file his own police reports, oh that's right silly me he is a COWARD!

I would like to point out a few things to you Caroline: Koa Creech is like the scum that hangs at the bottom of the barrel and I personally don't know you but like the saying goes Birds like a feather flock together. Koa Creech owe my husband and me money, he can claim all her wants that we are extorting money from him, and if that's what he wants to call it fine, he still owes us money! We did not get fired from our jobs, yes Tony no longer works for OMAX but that was by his choice, and get real people, you think you can call up corporations/employers and get information on employees, right! I can only assume that you all never heard of the Employer Confidentiality Law given Koa's supporters earlier statements on this site. I also fine it hilarious that you mention reporting us to the FBI when Koa can't even file his own complaint with Officer Lopez of the Fort Bragg Police Department, he sends Phil Sharpless to do it, result, no crime, just the waste of taxpayer dollars and Officer Lopez's time who by the way is in charge of school traffic. Oh that brings me to the newspaper article written on April 14, 2005 by reporter Frank Hartzell of the Fort Bragg Advocate News titled Creechers of the Sea seeking new location after building re-tagged by city inspector in the body of the article Mr. Hartzell questions Koa about statements he has made and claims he has made that investigations have proven false, like medical degrees from Germany and being on staff as a Neuro Surgeon at Cedar Sinai Hospital. Koa gets very defensive with Mr. Hartzell just like he did when Maui News reporter Harry Eager of Maui questioned him along with the scientific community about his ocean research. These newspaper articles will be posted somewhere on either this site or a web blog page.

According to the State of Hawaii, Dept of Commerce and Consumer Affairs the Ka'ua Foundation is Not in Good Standing and registration of the Foundation is Pending The complaint Tony and I filed against the foundation was found valid thus the status of Not in Good Standing.

Please pass this information on to your employer: when you post or send things on the internet the date and time according to where you are sending it from appears on the document you are sending of posting. So say you are claiming to be in Ireland near death and your assistant, Kanoelani is writing on your behalf make sure there is the UK embedded in the address. Also, if you're pretending to be someone in Hawaii by the name of Gabe and am posting in the guest book of the Ka'ua foundation be sure the time states Hawaii Time and not California.

So you see Caroline, you know jack s**t about what is going on unless you are Koa Creech then you know very well that there was no Koa at the HPD, there were however a lot of officers waiting for Koa Creech and if he wants to get together with Tony and I, why don't he call or better yet you call to set up a meeting, Koa has the contact number, invite Phil Sharples to join in, bring security if you are afraid, but defiantly bring the money you owe Tony and I! Keep in mind Caroline that dynamite comes in small packages, so don't underestimate the small stature of my husband and I to mean that we can only do small stuff, look what we have done so far and non the less from jail! But rest assure we have only just begun! Also if you are going to bad mouth this site, Rip Off Report, stay off it! Why on earth would you all keep posting, oh that's right you all are a bit slow in the head not to see how stupid you sound when in the body of your text you say that the site is also extorting money from Koa! Everyone is stealing form Koa same story different scam!

In closing, Tony and I have been ripped off by Koa Creech. We have initiated an investigation on Koa Creech, the Ka'ua foundation and In Heart Production. We are not Satya Lanik, Kristen Wolfson, and North Hollywood. I know that all people posting on behalf of Koa Creech/Ka'ua Foundation/IHP are one and the same. I am also fully aware that more stuff about Tony and I will appear on this site and others trashing our good name, trying to smear our outstanding reputations in our community, yes community and family something that Koa yearns for but does not have, but as they say sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me and Caroline, beauty is in the eye of the beholder for all I know your are ugly as a toad and to assume you are beautiful is so cheap!

You claim Koa's story is true, give me a contact, name/address/phone number of a person of Hawaiian decent who can confirm and verify all that Koa claims to be! Good luck and let your boss know that the Sons and Daughter of Kamehameha Hawaii chapter is still interested in meeting with this so called rightful King to the Hawaiian Kingdom.

I am Faye Persson of Hilo Hawaii, wife of Tony Persson and I approved this message.

The above report was made by Tony and Faye Perssons of Hilo Hawaii who are the same as the terrorsits from 9/11. Tony is wanted for murder in Sweden, and has been on a campaign to terrorize our exec. prod and our staff with murder, committed ugly sick lies and contacted all our clients, advertisers and even our friends in an attempt to harm us with great felonious attempts. Tony was fired from his job at Office Max in Hilo Hawaii for trying to extort funds from our Non Profit Foundation. He lost his second job at Hilo's Waterworks for using company time and resources to threaten our lives. This small man is a foul, sick and disturbed little man who is now even using his son (to demonstarte his sickness), who is now getting out of jail for murder and weapons charges to kill us. I have recorded all telephone calls, emails of threats and their foul ugly lies. They will be sitting next to Sadam very soon for many years for what they have done. All the blogs you see posted on the internet are from Tony and Faye Perssons pretending to be other people. This is why they can not live in the mainland as they will never be able to make a normal life. They are scum as they live off threatening innocent people. Tony has listed our office number which is the only thing he has correct so anyone can contact us to determine the truth. ROR, is in, and of itself a ripp off. They use these sick people to extort more funds from the innocent. The owner of ROR has multiple warrants in several states and has multiple court orders to appear for many civil cases. They refuse to print our reports as they are like there clients, disturbed, terrorists.
Caroline