Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 6, 1 June 2004 — Restoring Heʻeia [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Restoring Heʻeia

Kamehameha Schools and a community group have teamed up to care for He'eia fishpond, while using it as an educational resource

Story and photos by Sterling Kini Wong The water in the 500-year-old He'eia fishpond lay still, save for the wake of a dinghy approaching one of the four quarteracre fenced fish pens in the pond. Three members of Paepae o He'eia, a group that cares for the fishpond, were checking up on the pen's 17 milkfish, or awa, whieh represent their first attempt at replenishing the farmable fish stock in the pond. The group's long-term goal is to start cultivating moi, āholehole and 'anae - species that were traditionally a staple in He'eia, one of the few fishponds, or loko i'a, still in operation of the 23 that were located in Kāne'ohe Bay before European contact. However, using the loko i'a as an educational tool is the immediate objective of the group, whieh has partnered with Kamehameha Schools, the owners of the land, to help restore and maintain the 88 acres of He'eia fishpond. "Right now we are trying to mālama the fish so that we, along with the community and students, ean learn about them together," said Hi'ilei Kawelo, the group's facilities manager. The collaboration is a part of Kamehameha Schools' 'Āina Ulu Program, whieh seeks to fulfill the twin missions of the school - educating Native Hawaiian children and managing 360,000 acres of estate land - by merging the two together. Kamehameha Schools Land Assets Division director Neil Hannahs said that the 'Āina Ulu Program reflects the reciprocal relationship between Native Hawaiians and the 'āina. "The land helps us grow as we help it grow," he said.

Every year, about 4,000 students and workers go to He'eia to learn about the science of Hawaiian aquaculture while helping to maintain the loko i'a walls and eradicating invasive species. "Our goal is to restore the pond and provide a learning lab for children and the

community," said Ānuenue Pūnua, educational development coordinator for Paepae o He'eia. "Everyone should benefit from this rich cultural resource." One of the ideas that Paepae o He'eia tries to instill in all its visitors is that an ahupua'a acts as one harmonious body: three freshwater streams feed into the fishpond, and six fishpond gates, or mākāhā, release water into the oeean. Kawelo explains that the water quality and amount of sediment in the fishpond is dependant on the activities upstream. "What happens up mauka is magnified when it reaches the pond," Kawelo says. "This whole ahupua'a is eonnected, from the land to the sea." Among the many ehallenges facing the managers of the fishpond is

controlling the mangroves, whieh have taken over more than half of the fishpond's 1.3 miles of rock walls. The mangroves' massive root systems weaken the wall by loosening rocks, whieh lets the cultivated fish out and predators, such as barracuda and pāpio, in. However, as Paepae o He'eia staffer Kalikolīhau

Hannahs points out, if too many of the mangroves are eradicated, the sediment that has accumulated between the plants' roots will fall into the pond, making the water shallower and warmer, thereby throwing off the ecology of the pond.

However daunting the task of maintaining the fishpond may seem, the members of Paepae o He'eia approach the challenges with a cultural sense of enterprise and adaptation. They use the wood of the mangroves, for example, to make digging sticks, or 'ō'ō, and the hula instrument kālā'au. The

flowers, called kukunaokalā, ean also be used in making lei. In addition, the group sells an invasive seaweed - called Gracilaria salicornia - that is eommon in the loko i'a to fishmarkets for use as an edible limu.

In traditional times, an ahupua'a was considered to be wealthy if it had a fishpond, because it was capable of feeding so many people. Although fish are not yet being harvested in He'eia, the fishpond is proving to still be a rich resource for the community. ■

Top: Ānuenue Pūnua gazes across 1.3 miles of rock and coral wall of He'eia fishpond. Clockwise from above left: Mahinapoepoe Paishon removes a crab cage left by a poacher at the mouth of one of the streams that feeds the fishpond; the mangrove flower, called kukunaokalō, is used in making le; Hi'ilei Kawelo measures feed for the awa in the pond's pens.