Kela a me Keia

If you have a map of Oahu or even better a copy of Bryan’s Sectional Maps of O‘ahu, see if you can find these three streets: Ka-Hanahou Circle, Mikiola Drive, and Miomio Loop.  You’ll see that each one of them is in a residential community on the shoreline of Kaneohe Bay. But each one of these streets shares something more in common than providing access to homes of Windward residents. Each one of them marks the location of a former traditional Hawaiian fishpond of the same name, which during the 1900s was filled in to create new waterfront property, the same fate suffered by almost every other fishpond on Oahu.

When Gilbert McAllister wrote Archaeology of Oahu in 1932, he included an introductory section on loko i‘a, or fishponds, and noted that “there are more of these ponds on O‘ahu than on any of the other islands, probably because of the irregular coast line, with sheltering bays and inlets on the shallow coral reefs. I have obtained information on 97 ponds, many of which no longer exist. “ McAllister went on to say that the largest concentration of ponds was found in Pearl Harbor, while other large groups of ponds were found off Moanalua, Kalihi, and Kaneohe Bay. Today on O‘ahu, less than a dozen have survived, and only a few are in active use and under restoration, such as Waikalua Loko on Kaneohe Bay.

A longtime student of Hawaiian fishponds is Dr. Clyde Tamaru, an Aquaculture Extension Specialist in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Dr. Tamaru received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1988, writing his doctoral thesis on mullet and milkfish, the two species that were most commonly raised in traditional fishponds.  In addition to consulting on many public and private aquaculture projects, he is a member of the Asian Fisheries Society, the Hawaiian Aquaculture Association, the Waikalua Fishpond Preservation Society, the Honolulu Aquarium Society, and the World Aquaculture Society.  The following are some of his thoughts on the state of traditional Hawaiian fishponds in Hawaii today.

JC: Let’s start with the resurgence of interest in fishponds in the 1970s.

CT: In the early days of the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1970s, a number of attempts were made to restore fishponds and make them productive. Fishponds are a very efficient way to make animal protein, but one of the big issues from the start was that there was an emphasis on making them commercially productive. Fishpond restoration and maintenance are labor intensive operations, and even when some of the ponds were up and running, they couldn’t produce the quantities of fish to make them commercially viable. They were designed for a time and place that does not exist today, and in the 20th century, it was just too hard to compete with all the other sources of fish on the market, including modern aquaculture. Eventually, all these large-scale efforts at commercial fishpond production died out.

JC: Then what is the value of fishponds today if it’s not the commercial production of fish?

CT: The fishponds connect us to the past. They are a link to traditional Hawaiian culture. They give people an opportunity to experience what life was like in a traditional island subsistence society. Working in the fishponds is a valuable hands-on experience. It teaches people how to work together and instills stewardship of the land and sea. This is especially important for children today. Most of them are raised in urban environments and they’re totally into television and electronic devices. Visiting or working in fishponds are important opportunities to show them that there’s more to life than screens and keypads.

JC: What are some of the success stories of fishpond restoration and its impact here in Hawaii?

CT: Waikalua Loko in Kaneohe is one of the success stories. In addition to everything we’ve already indentified, it also provides cultural based education for native Hawaiians and other students. The fishpond is used as the basis for developing curricula in science, culture, and art. Hopefully, one of the things it will do is stimulate interest in the marine sciences, especially among native Hawaiians.

JC: Any final thoughts on Hawaiian fishponds?

CT: Loko i‘a  are unique cultural treasures. They allow the people of Hawaii, especially our children, to tune in with the natural processes and to absorb traditional knowledge and values. This may prove to be more important than all the fish that were ever produced in these ancient structures.