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September 27, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kalauhaʻihaʻi Fishpond

In ancient Hawai‘i, fishponds were an integral part of the ahupua‘a.  Hawaiians built enclosures in near shore waters to raise fish for their communities and families.  It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

A fish was kapu to the Hawaiians during its spawning season, to allow a variety of fish to reproduce. Although the chief or commoners were unable to catch fish in the sea at specific time spans, they were available in the fishponds because fishponds were considered a part of the land.

In 1848, when King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property.  This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Maunalua Bay, located at the southeast end of Oʻahu, was once home to many large Hawaiian fishponds; one of these was Kalauhaʻihaʻi fishpond (sometimes referenced as Kalauhaʻehaʻe (and Lucas Pond/Spring.))

Its original owners were King Kamehameha I and Queen Kaʻahumanu who maintained a summer residence on Paikō Beach.  Kalauhaʻihaʻi was once one of Oʻahu’s most thriving and productive fishponds, raising awa, aholehole, mullet and other favorites.

The name Kalauhaʻihaʻi refers to Queen Kaʻahumanu’s breaking of the old kapu (the ancient system of laws and regulations) when she became Christian, which is said to have taken place on the property.

King Kamehameha later gave the land, including the spring and pond, to Captain Alexander Adams (1780–1871.)  “Many were the self-sacrificing services rendered Kamehameha and Kaʻahumanu by Captain Adams, and they both loved him for his loyal devotion.”

“In appreciation they gave him the whole of the land of Niu, Oʻahu, and included also in this gift their favorite resort subsequently called Kalauhaihai, the place where Kaahumanu first proclaimed her renunciation of ancient rites and customs, to adopt modern civilization and customs.”

“That was why the place was so named, meaning a scattering or dropping off of leaves; plucking withered leaves, a renunciation of the ancient customs to adopt the new.”  (Thrum)

Ownership of the 2,446-acres were claimed by Alexander Adams under Claim No. 802 filed February 14, 1848, with the Land Commission at the time of the Great Māhele.

The claim states: “From the testimony of Governor Kekūanāoʻa … it appears that the claimant was created lord of konohiki of this land, in the time of Kamehameha I, and that he has exercised the konohikiship of the same without dispute ever since the year of Our Lord 1822.”

The Niu Valley estate was passed down to Adams’ granddaughter, Mary Lucas; Kalauhaʻihaʻi fishpond was later used for a family dairy by Mary Lucas.  She started subdividing the property in the 1950s; Adam’s descendants remain in the area.

In the 1960s, Mr. Tad Hara had a two-story wooden house built over the still productive pond.  The home was designed with a glass floor to allow Mr. Hara to view the fish in the pond.

The 3-foot-deep pond was filled with aholehole (Hawaiian flagtail,) ʻopae lolo (aloha prawn,)ʻamaʻama (mullet,) awa (milkfish,) hapawai (brackish water snail) and koi.  In 1989, Mr. Hara registered his fishpond with the State Water Commission.

Widening Kalanianaʻole Highway (the fourth busiest highway in the State) in the early-1990s changed things.

During construction, they ruptured the lava tube connecting Kalauhaʻihaʻi Fishpond to the underground artesian source directly mauka of the pond that altered spring flow to the ocean, diverted the water to utility line trenches and the sewer.

A legal battle ensued to restore the spring’s flow; Mr. Hara eventually sold the property to the DOT.

A community effort to preserve the pond resulted in a NOAA-sponsored plan and legislation to keep the property in state hands and away from public auction (as well as providing statewide preference for the reconstruction, restoration, repair, or use of Hawaiian fishponds.)

Since 2007, Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center has been working to save Kalauhaʻihaʻi; they happily reported that on July 11, 2013, they were given the keys to the property and permission to restore the fishpond and care for the grounds.

In 2021, Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center worked with the State Legislature to secure $1 million to go to DLNR Engineering Branch for the reconnection and long awaited repair of the water flow at Kalauhaʻihaʻi.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Kalauhaihai Fishpond, Hawaii, Oahu, Alexander Adams, Maunalua Bay, Maunalua, Fishpond, Niu

March 2, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes

Very few people lived there, but that shouldn’t suggest the place was without activity.

By the time of first contact with Europeans, the downtown area of Honolulu, known then as Kou, was comprised of shoreward fishponds and taro lo‘i fed by streams extending into the Nu‘uanu and Pauoa valleys.

On the opposite side (ʻEwa) of Nu‘uanu stream was a fishpond, identified as “Kawa” or the “King’s fish pond.” Iwilei at that time was a small, narrow peninsula, less populated than the Honolulu-side of Nuʻuanu stream.

Offshore from Iwilei was a small island on the coral reef on the west site of the bay. On the island was a small hut referred to as “Ka-moku-‘akulikuli” or “Kaha-ka-‘au-lana” (the early names for it were “Quarantine Island,” then “Sand Island” – it was a lot smaller, then, too.)

The first wharf at Honolulu Harbor was just north of Nuʻuanu Street. It was constructed from an old hulk sunk at the spot in 1825. This was replaced and expanded in 1837.

On the shoreline (at about what is now the intersection of Queen and Nimitz) Fort Kekuanohu was constructed. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out. Later, it was used as a prison.

In 1852, the legislature adopted a resolution directing the minister of the interior to remove the Fort and to use the material obtained thereby “in the construction of prisons, and the filling up of the reef.”

The Fort, being used as a prison, could not be removed until a new prison was built; construction for the new prison began in 1855, but not entirely completed until more than two years later. The Fort was then removed in 1857. (Kuykendall)

The Prison was on a marshy no-man’s land almost completely cut off from the main island by two immense fishponds. The causeway road (initially called “Prison Road,” later “Iwilei Street”) split Kawa Pond into Kawa and Kūwili fishponds.

Sometimes called the “Oʻahu Prison,” “King’s Prison,” “Kawa Prison” or, simply, “The Reef,” it was a coral block fortress built upon coral fill at the end of a coral built road over the coral reefs and mudflats of Iwilei.

In 1886, Mark Twain visited the prison and wrote: “… we presently arrived at a massive coral edifice which I took for a fortress at first, but found out directly that it was the government prison. A soldier at the great gate admitted us without further authority than my countenance, and I supposed he thought he was paying me a handsome compliment when he did so; and so did I until I reflected that the place was a penitentiary”.

The Prison was later relocated to Kalihi (1916) and renamed O‘ahu Jail; this is now known as O‘ahu Community Correctional Facility.

Another Iwilei activity included a railway station. In 1889, a group of businessmen led by Benjamin Dillingham founded the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L).

OR&L built Honolulu’s first depot between Kūwili fishpond and King Street, west of Iwilei Street. The July 27, 1889 Advertiser noted, “Plans have been approved by which the main depot will be placed 180 feet from King Street in what is now a fishpond dividing Oahu Prison from the royal stables. A large portion, if not all, of this extensive fishpond will be filled in without delay…”

The railroad carried sugarcane from the plantations to Iwilei – it carried people, too. To accommodate this, the marshes and fishponds were filled in and new wharfs built. By 1901, the OR&L and other business interests had created about 500 acres of waterfront land. The docks could accommodate over 20 deepwater sailing vessels, unloading coal and loading sugar.

The last of the activities at early Iwilei was the business of sex. (Before there was Hotel Street (the 1940s gathering place,) there was Iwilei.) They called it the ‘Iwilei Stockade.’

Inside a high stockade wall were long rows of rooms, each 8×10; there were 225 of them. Most of the women were from Japan. From 4 pm to 2 am, the stockade gates were open. (Gallagher)

These women did not live at Iwilei; they only went there in the evenings, and then returned to their uptown homes at night. Some had homes of their own, others were servants of families; but all went back to town. They were in no sense isolated; Iwilei was not their home; they neither eat nor sleep there. (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

Local law enforcement condoned and controlled the activities, under the guise that it was “a public necessity.” “The whole of Iwilei makai of the Oʻahu Prison has been used for the purpose of prostitution for some time past.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

“The High Sheriff of the Territory, through his agents, has ordered all of such women (prostitutes) that are found in different parts of the City, and also in some portions of Iwilei, to move to one particular part as follows: on the makai side of Iwilei rice mill, and on the Ewa side of the Iwilei road.” (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

The Iwilei brothels (or “boogie houses,” as they were also called back then) were later forced to relocate to Hotel Street and a few adjoining parts of Chinatown. By 1916, the Iwilei Stockade was shut down.

It has been suggested that one of the former Iwilei prostitutes became the role model for the key character in the silent film “Sadie Thompson,” based on W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “Rain” (as well as other adaptations.)

As time went on, more of the fringing reefs were filled, which made way for expanded commercial use. By the 1920s, small and large businesses moved in – and, now, gone are the Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes from Iwilei.

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Downtown_and_Vicinity-Map-noting_Oahu_Prison-Kawa_and_Kuwili_Fishponds-and-Shoreline-1887
Oahu_Prison
Looking_mauka_from_Iwilei_Prison-overlooking_causeway-(Saga-Scott)
Oahu_Prison-(BishopMuseum)-1866
Prison_Inmates_around_Communal_Buckets_of_Poi
Honolulu_from_the_Prison-PP-38-2-002-1862
Looking_mauka_from_Iwilei_Prison-overlooking_causeway
Honolulu_Waterfront-From-Iwilei-PPWD-9-3-003-1890s
Dwellings probably along King St. near River St. and Nuuanu Stream-PP-38-3-017-1870
Honolulu_Waterfront_from_the_Prison-PP-38-5-007-1880s
Iwilei_Prison-(Saga-Scott)
OR&L_Railway-Pullmans
River Street looking toward Punchbowl from King Street
OR&L Honolulu
pulls into the Honolulu Depot to pick up and dispatch passengers. Photo taken in 1890.
pulls into the Honolulu Depot to pick up and dispatch passengers. Photo taken in 1890.
OR&L-Chinese_Theater-Kaumakapili_Church-PPWD-9-3-002-1890s
Iwilei-'Rooms'-(Saga-Scott)
Iwilei-red_light_district-(ghosttowns)
Iwilei-'Rooms'-(Greer)
General_View_of_Iwilei_Pen-(The_Republican)-09-02-1900

Filed Under: Economy, General, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, Iwilei Stockade, Iwilei, Oahu Railway and Land Company, Dillingham, Fishpond

September 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ancient Agricultural Production Intensification

According the research and reporting by noted archaeologists, there were three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones.

Walled Fishponds

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania.  Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families.  It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

Only in Hawaiʻi was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

The ancient Hawaiian fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique.  Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond).  Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

The cultivation of fish took place in Hawaiian agricultural pondfields as well as in specialized fresh and brackish water fishponds. Walled, brackish-water fishponds were usually constructed on the reef along the shore and one or more mākāhā.

Samuel M. Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls.

In 1848, when King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property.  This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Lo‘i Kalo (terraced pondfields)

A second technological invention by Hawaiian Polynesians was the development of their extended stone-faced, terraced pondfields (lo‘i) and their accompanying irrigation systems (‘auwai) for the intensive cultivation of wetland taro (kalo.)

The terraces were irrigated with water brought in ditches from springs and streams high in the valleys, allowing extensive areas of the valleys to be cultivated. The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

An acre of irrigated pondfields produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time thin irrigated gardens.

In addition, walled pondfields not only produce taro, but were also used to raise an additional source of food, freshwater fish: primarily the Hawaiian goby (‘o‘opu nakea) and certain kinds of shrimp (‘opae.)

Captain George Vancouver visited O‘ahu in 1792 and wrote about the taro gardens in tine Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mo‘ili‘ili-Manana complex that he observed:

“Our guides led us to the northward through the village [Waikiki], to an exceedingly well-made causeway, about twelve feet broad, with a ditch on each side.  This opened to our view a spacious plain…the major part appeared divided into fields of irregular shape and figure, which were separated from each other by low stone walls, and were in a very high state of cultivation.”

In 1815, the explorer Kotzebue added to these descriptions by writing about the gardens and the artificial ponds that were scattered throughout the area:

“The luxuriant taro-fields, which might be properly called taro-lake, attracted my attention.  Each of these consisted of about one hundred and sixty square feet, forms a regular square, and walled round with stones, like our basins. This field or tank contained two feet of water, in whose slimy bottom the taro was planted, as it only grows in moist places. Each had two sluices. One to receive, and the other to let out, the water into the next field, whence it was carried farther.”

Dryland Field System

The third form of subsistence intensification involved the systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones as exemplified by the Field Systems in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō and Kalaupapa (Ka‘ū reportedly also has a field system.)

Cultivation of the soil in Kona was characterized by a variety of non-irrigated root and tree crops grown for subsistence, each farmer having gardens in one or more vegetation zones. Each crop was cultivated in the zone in which it grew best.

Reverend William Ellis described the area behind Kailua town in Kona above the breadfruit and mountain apple trees as, “The path now lay through a beautiful part of the country, quite a garden compared with that through which they had passed on first leaving the town.”

“It was generally divided into small fields, about fifteen rods square fenced with low stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered from the surface of the enclosures. These fields were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, mountain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every direction.”

Farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry.  Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

The fields were typically oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls; sometimes these were made up of a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from the wind.

Since the dryland technique was away from supplemental water sources, this was truly dryland agriculture.  There was no evidence to level terraces as in irrigated pondfield systems (taro lo‘i,) and there was no evidence of water control features or channels; so the conclusion was the system was strictly rainfed.

The inspiration (and much of the information) for this post came from research from Dr. Marion Kelly.

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Heeia Fishpond-1975
Interior fish pond Waikiki Oahu-1905
Moku‘ula
Moku‘ula
Fishponds - Molii and Mokolii-1930
Moku‘ula
Moku‘ula
Hawaii_Island_Fishpond_Gate-(WC)
Fishpond_in_east_Molokai-(WC)
Fish_Ponds_at_Honoruru,_Oahu,_by_John_Murray,_after_Robert_Dampier-(WC)-1836
Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893) - Waikiki_portion-(note_fish_ponds-rice_fields_(formerly_used_as_taro_loi)
Hawaiian_Taro_Plant-1920
c. 1826 lithograph, William Ellis C., Big Island. Waipio Valley, Ahupua'a.
c. 1826 lithograph, William Ellis C., Big Island. Waipio Valley, Ahupua’a.
Auwai-(KSBE)
Wailau-terraces-walls (Windy K McElroy)
Wailau-terraces_walls (Windy K McElroy)
Stepped terrace walls under hau trees, Kahaluʻu Taro Loʻi-(WC)
Oahu-Kahaluu-kalo-terrace-wall-(WC)
Hanalei_Valley_Taro-Loi-(WC)
Hanalei_Valley_Taro-Loi-(WC)
Loi-Kalo-Punaluu-(KSBE-BishopMuseum)-1924
Loi-Kalo-Punaluu-(KSBE-BishopMuseum)-1924
Water from the ‘auwai going back to the kahawai-(KSBE)
Kohala Field System-walls-trails-map-Vitousek
Kohala Field System-photo-Vitousek
Kaupo_Dryland_Field_System
Kalaupapa_Field_System-densely packed windbreak field walls are visible from the air-(McCoy)
Kalaupapa_Field_System-(SJSU-McCoy)-Map
P-03-View of Country back of Kailua
Kona_Field_System-GoogleEarth
Map of Islands noting Majory Dryland Field Systems-(Kirch)

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Fishpond, Loi, Taro, Dryland, Agriculture

July 28, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fishponds

In ancient Hawai‘i, fishponds were an integral part of the ahupua‘a. Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

Only in Hawai’i was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

The ancient Hawaiian coastal fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique. Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds.

A fish was kapu to the Hawaiians during its spawning season, to allow a variety of fish to reproduce. Although the chief or commoners were unable to catch fish in the sea at specific time spans, they were available in the fishponds because fishponds were considered a part of the land.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

The two major categories of loko were shore ponds and inland ponds. Hawaiians recognized five main types of fishponds and fishtraps. The primary ocean-based ponds were:

  • loko kuapā – what we consider the typical coastal fishpond, artificially enclosed by an arc-shaped seawall and containing at least one sluice gate (mākāhā)
  • loko pu‘uone, an isolated shore fishpond containing either brackish or a mixture of brackish and fresh water, formed by development of a barrier beach paralleling the coast, and connected to the ocean by a channel or ditch
  • loko ‘ume‘iki, a shore pond with numerous lanes leading in and out, was actually a very large fishtrap, whose walls were submerged at high tide, enabling fish to enter, and slightly above sea level at low tide. Fish were not continually raised or stored inside these structures, but were trapped and used immediately after capture.

Two forms of inland ponds were used to store fish, as well:

  • loko wai, a natural freshwater inland pond
  • loko i‘a kalo, small inland irrigated taro plot ponds

In ancient times, control of one or more fishponds was a symbol of chiefly status and power. Fishponds after the Great Mahele became private property and part of the adjoining land.

Fishponds are unique in Hawai‘i in that they are considered submerged lands, yet they are real property that can be brought, sold and leased.

The commoner had no absolute right to fish in the ponds, nor in the sector of ocean adjacent to the chief’s land – all of such rights were vested in the chiefs and ultimately in the King.

In 1848, when King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property by landowners and by the Hawaiian government.

This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Because of their location in the coastal zone, Hawaiian fishponds are controlled by a regulatory framework where County, State and Federal agencies each exercise some degree of control over activities associated with the pond.

There is a separate chapter in the State laws (Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes -HRS §183B) that deal with fishponds. Under certain circumstances, reconstruction, restoration, repair, or use of any Hawaiian fishpond are exempt from the requirements of chapter §343 (environmental review laws.)

When I was a kid, there were a couple abandoned and derelict fishponds down the channel near our house on Kāneʻohe Bay, but I never thought of them as ponds. My first real exposure to fishponds was the pond fronting the Nottage’s grandmother’s house on Molokaʻi.

While at DLNR, I remember the fishpond restoration on Maui with Kimokeo Kapahulehua (I still proudly wear the T-shirt from their program “‘Ao‘ao O Na Loko I‘a O Maui – Revitalizing a wall Revitalizing a culture”;) likewise, Colette Machado and Walter Ritte showed me fishponds on Moloka‘i and the work school groups were involved in there.

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Koieie-Fishpond-NPS
Koieie-Fishpond-NPS
Paiko-Pond-Life-1937
Paiko-Pond-Life-1937
Old_photograph_of_the_Heʻeia_fishpond-(WC)
Old_photograph_of_the_Heʻeia_fishpond-(WC)
Kaneohe,_Oahu,_1880_(PPWD-11-7-039)
Kaneohe,_Oahu,_1880_(PPWD-11-7-039)
Heeia-paepaeoheeia
Heeia-paepaeoheeia
Heeia Pond-paepaeoheeia
Heeia Pond-paepaeoheeia
Fishpond_in_east_Molokai-(WC)
Fishpond_in_east_Molokai-(WC)
Hawaii_Kai-UH-MAGIS-2466-1952
Hawaii_Kai-UH-MAGIS-2466-1952
Kaloko_Fish_Pond-(WC)
Kaloko_Fish_Pond-(WC)
Kaloko_Fish_Pond-(WC)
Kaloko_Fish_Pond-(WC)

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Fishpond

July 5, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kuapā Pond

Kuapā Pond, also known as Keahupuaomaunalua (“the shrine of the baby mullet at Maunalua”) was once the largest loko kuapā on O‘ahu, estimated at approximately 523-acres.

Kuapā Pond was apparently created near the end of the ice age, when the rising sea level caused the shoreline to retreat and partial erosion of the headlands adjacent to the bay formed sediment that accreted to form a barrier beach at the mouth of the pond, creating a lagoon.

Early Hawaiians used the natural lagoon as a fishpond and reinforced the natural sandbar with stone walls.

Kuapā literally means “wall of a fish pond” and a loko kuapā is one type of fishpond made by building a wall on a reef.  The wall at this fishpond was about 5,000 feet long.

One of the main harvests was mullet because the combination of freshwater and shallow sand or mud flats that the ponds created were ideal for growing the algae that mullet fed off of.

Hawaiian Historian Kamakau writes of Kamehameha I participating in the restoration of the Maunalua fishpond., “While he (Kamehameha) lived on Oahu he encouraged the chiefs and commoners to raise food and he went fishing and would work himself at carrying rock or timber … He worked at the fishponds at Ka-wai-nui, Ka‘ele-pulu, Uko‘a (in Waialui,) Mauna-lua, and all about O’ahu.  (Kamakau 1961:192)

In 1900, the island of Oahu had a total of 100 documented, working fishponds, providing thousands of pounds of fish for the community throughout the year.

Missionary Levi Chamberlain, during his Trip Around Oahu on June 21, 1826, noted: “I descended with my attendant, and near the shares of a large pond containing a surface of many hundred acres I came to a little settlement called Keawaawa and stopped e few moments to enquire the way & to allow my attendant the luxury of a whif of tobacco.”

“Thence I walked on by the side of the pond in a southerly direction about a mile having the eminences Mounalua (Maunalua) on my left- I then came to a narrow strip of land resembling a causeway partly natural and partly constructed extending in a Northwest direction across what appeared to be considerable of a bay forming a barrier between the sea and the pond.”

“At the further end of this causeway sluices are constructed & the waters of the sea unite with the pond and at every flood tide replenish it with a fresh supply of water. Near the middle of this causeway there is a settlement of 18 houses belonging to Kalola called Mounalua (Maunalua.)”

It is said that the pond was partially constructed by Menehune, a legendary race of small people and was connected through an underground tunnel to Kaʻelepulu fishpond in Kailua.

In J. Gilbert McAllister’s 1933 Archaeology of Oahu, he notes: “Keahupua-o-Maunalua Fishpond—The pond is said to connect by means of an underground tunnel with Kaelepulu pond in Kailua.”

“From time to time great schools of mullet disappear from the Maunalua pond and are to be found in the Kailua pond. At the same time the awa, which were in the Kailua pond, appear in the Maunalua pond. When the mullet reappear in the Maunalua pond the awa disappear. Kanane, the fish warden, tells me that this occurs even today, but cannot be explained by the Japanese who leases the pond.”

The ownership of the ‘ili of Maunalua passed to Bernice Pauahi Bishop and thus to the Kamehameha Schools.

To a lot of people, Kuapā is now referred to as “Koko Marina,” the result of development in the 1960s by Henry J Kaiser.

In 1961, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapa Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as “Hawaii Kai.”

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapa Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaii Kai Marina.

They increased the average depth of the channel from two to six feet and also created accommodations for pleasure boats and eliminated the sluice gates.

The East Honolulu region (including Hawaii Kai,) has a population of approximately 49,100 people (2010,) 5.2% of O‘ahu’s population.  Hawai‘i Kai is one of O‘ahu’s larger bedroom communities.  The pond now serves as a marina for small boats, and is open space in this growing community.

Lots of good stuff is going on to protect and restore the nearshore waters and bring attention to the region by Mālama Maunalua and Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center.

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Kuapa-Hawaii_Kai_before_development
Hawaii Kai-pre-development-1915
Kuapa_Pond-Star-Bulletin
Hawaii Kai in a 1960 photo as Henry Kaiser was beginning development of the area
Hawaii_Kai-UH-MAGIS-2256-1968
Hawaii_Kai-UH-MAGIS-2465-1952
Hawaii_Kai-UH-MAGIS-4470-1963
Hawaii_Kai

Filed Under: General, Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Kaelepulu, Maunalua Bay, Fishpond, Kuapa Fishpond, Hawaii Kai, Kuapa

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