The Restoration of Kaloko Fish Pond & Molokai

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Kaloko fish pond is just south of Costco in Kona.  Restoration of the pond began in 2015 when a college student became interested in the history and cultural significance of the bay.  She's now designated the guardian of the pond.

The article (below) is a good introduction to the origins of Hawaiian fish ponds, their construction, use, all at a time when Big Island residents were fed without Young Brothers or Aloha Cargo:

Perched on delicate pink limbs and cloaked in black and white feathers, two Hawaiian stilts poke their beaks into the water, unaware of the outrigger canoe gliding silently across the pond behind them. A bearded man paddles while his young daughter sits near the bow beside Ruth Aloua, a native Hawaiian archaeologist and the kia‘i loko, or guardian, of this traditional fishpond known as Kaloko.

Reawakening Kaloko Fish Pond

[dan d]

Wow, excellent article. I had never seen a birds eye view before. They neglected to say an airport, harbor,and konas hugest solid waste treatment plant nearby. I remember when there was a oppps sewage spill ,and the aquifer is cut thru right at Honokohau harbor, similar to Hilo harbor water river comes out near the launch ramp. The harbor was closed, kinda like okalaa .

The solution to polution is DILUTION. Something i heard at a clean islands coun brief ,lol
Aloha


HPP

[Frank]

The solution to polution is DILUTION. Something i heard at a clean islands coun brief

Doesn't sound like the Clean Island Council I was associated with, course we were concerned mostly with oil on the water/beaches...just a comment - Not a hy-jack

[MarkD]

The article does not say much about permitting issues. Hopefully they had minimal problem. Here is what a Ke Ola article said, citing a 2013 T-H story:

"It is difficult to obtain permission to restore an ancient fishpond today... involves obtaining up to 17 permits from Federal, State, and Hawai‘i County agencies, according to an October 2013 article in Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald...years can easily pass before final permission is granted, and it can cost up to $80,000 in time and wages required to navigate the many complicated forms."

https://keolamagazine.com/sustainability...in-hawaii/

The article adds "The promising news is that (DNLR) is currently proposing a “streamlined permitting process..."

Hopefully that streamlining has come about. Their should be minimal permitting for fishpond restoration. This permitting situation is in line with my longstanding complaint about environmental opposition to shoreline modification, which they viscerally dislike (though they deny it). Environmentalists are deceptive on the topic.

They will say something like We don't oppose these projects in principle; we just insist on proper permitting...i's dotted, t's crossed. But the environmental regulations that govern these projects, such as the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act--the federal regs are the most onerous--make permitting near impossible to obtain. Environmentalists wanted it that way, and today they would oppose any altering of NEPA regs to allow easier approval of public shoreline projects like fishponds, artificial surfing reefs, coastal swimming lagoons, or rock pools.

We need to build all these things on mostly cliff-girded Hawaii Island in the next 20-100 years. Once again, ocean rock pools.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The article does not say much about permitting issues.

The National Park Service may have assisted in the process:

The National Park Service in 2013 petitioned to designated the aquifer a state water management area, saying that the county does not have adequate controls over pumping to assure that the supply is not over-taxed. The county, lawmakers up to the federal level and local businesses have strongly opposed the designation...

Even if the petition is denied, Native Hawaiians will be back stronger and will resubmit, said Ruth Aloua, who identified herself as a cultural practitioner and guardian of the park fish ponds.

https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2016/05/...honokohau/

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge

The National Park Service may have assisted in the process:

The National Park Service in 2013 petitioned to designated the aquifer a state water management area, saying that the county does not have adequate controls over pumping to assure that the supply is not over-taxed. The county, lawmakers up to the federal level and local businesses have strongly opposed the designation...

Even if the petition is denied, Native Hawaiians will be back stronger and will resubmit, said Ruth Aloua, who identified herself as a cultural practitioner and guardian of the park fish ponds.

https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2016/05/...honokohau/

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That effort by the Park had nothing to do with the fish ponds and everything to do with taking control of future development in the Kailua Kona area. Their claims that pumping of mauka wells was impacting water flow to the shoreline fish ponds wasn't supported by any of the field data presented to the Water Commission staff - neither their own data, nor that collected independently, supported their claims.

Not to mention it was a very cynical exercise in exploiting Hawaiian culture to support their operational imperative to control development on the Park's borders...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Another fishpond has been restored on Molokai:

In an ocean state that now imports half of its seafood, a determined group of activists is restoring the age-old aquaculture practices of Native Hawaiians.

https://www.biographic.com/hawaiis-ancie...ine+Weekly&utm_campaign=fddec099f5-weekly-nov-22-2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0fc1967411-fddec099f5-121612361