Scientists, cultural practitioners and leaders in environmental conservation urge action over more conversation after two decades of research on Hawaii Island’s coral reefs.
As part of World Ocean Day, the Malama Kai Foundation hosted the panel discussion, “Sustaining Our Seas,” with Dr. Greg Asner from Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Lauren Nakoa from the Nakoa Foundation and the Hawaiian Chieftain, and Cindi Punihaole from the Kohala Center at the Palace Theater.
The free discussion was guided by Dr. Chris Hawkins as he asked them about what they have seen through their distinct experiences with Hawaii Island’s marine ecosystems and what they hope to see for the future.
Asner has worked as a marine ecologist on Big Island for 31 years and has dedicated 23 years of research to understanding the rapid declining health of West Hawaii’s 120-mile coral reef.
“Throughout my time here, the reef off of West Hawaii has rapidly declined from 70% coral coverage to 7%,” Asner said. “It happened so fast because the reef has been overfished, polluted and heated.”
The most devastating loss of coral occurred during the marine heat wave that hit the Hawaiian islands in 2015, which was unprecedented at the time. According to Punihaole, the heat wave killed 95% of the coral in Kahalu‘u Bay.
After monitoring Hawaii’s coral reefs, Asner found that reefs with a low amount of pollution and high fish concentration survive heat events and warming oceans far better than those with small populations of fish and coastal pollution.
“The study proved this unequivocally,” Asner said. “If you reduce fishing pressure in a culturally appropriate way and control pollution, the reef will survive with far more and that has been our number one lesson.”
While Hawaii is not experiencing a large marine heat wave this year, one can be expected every three to five years, according to Asner.
About four years ago, Asner shifted focus from diagnosis to restoration and intervention and founded the Ako‘ako‘a Reef Restoration Program, which will be opening a facility in Kailua-Kona at the end of the month.
The program fuses cultural leadership, multi-modal education, advanced science and government service to the goal of empowering all of the communities of Hawaii Island to consciously act, restore and sustain the coral reefs.
“The academic process has been shown to be a failed state in many places throughout my career. It hasn’t been crafted to serve the community, but crafted to serve knowledge and end in careers in academia,” Asner said. “Scientific studies are not successful when there is chronic change, it’s the communities and traditional practitioners that know it first.”
Asner has installed a cultural advisory board for Ako‘ako‘a to keep the program grounded in Hawaiian traditions as well as a team of skilled scientists, technologists, educators, vessel operators and more with the hopes that their work can be translated to actionable change made at all levels of government.
According to Nakoa, the Hawaiian Chieftain, which is a 103-foot square-rigged topsail ketch, will serve as a vessel for educational and experiential opportunities when it returns and is anchored in Kailua Bay.
“We are really wanting to bring back the excitement for voyaging, history and Hawaii while making sure we think about what that could look like in the future,” Nakoa said. “We want this to be an opportunity to perpetuate stewardship and place-based knowledge.”
The Nakoa Foundation is already doing this work through its youth program, Na Pe‘a, which teaches students social and environmental responsibility while they learn to sail a traditional Hawaiian canoe.
Education was the first part of protecting Kahalu‘u Bay and its unique coral reef ecosystem when the Kohala Center opened the Kahalu‘u Bay Education Center, or KBEC, beginning in 2011.
For over a decade, KBEC has taught visitors reef-friendly practices, but especially urged mineral sunscreen. After widespread advocacy, the Hawaii County Council passed the bill allowing only mineral sunscreen to be sold and distributed.
“The county passed the sunscreen bill and every store now sells mineral sunscreen as of December 2022. We had action,” Punihaole said. “We are in such disarray, and mauka to makai, it’s time to look at what we’re doing and turn the research and ancestral knowledge into action.”
The Kohala Center has built deep connections and trust with local and state leaders, the community and educational institutions when it comes to protecting and revitalizing the coral reef at Kahalu‘u Bay.
After losing nearly all its coral during the 2015 heat wave and experiencing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, there was a necessary need for rejuvenation and rest for the reef.
Beginning in 2018, Hawaii County Parks and Recreation worked with KBEC and the Division of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources to close Kahalu‘u Bay for few days each year to allow for cauliflower coral spawning, which has been essential to its revitalization.
In six years, six viable cauliflower coral have grown into over 100, according to Punihaole.
“This rejuvenation we’ve seen, that’s what we want for our generations to come. This is what happens when we do, not just talk, but do something,” Punihaole said. “It’s not what we think, or what we say, it’s what we do. We all need to kilo (observe) and listen to the ‘aina, because if you really listen, the ‘aina will tell you what it needs.”
For more information on Kahalu‘u Bay and the Kohala Center, visit kohalacenter.org/kbec.
The Ako’ako’a Reef Restoration Program can be found at akoakoa.org.
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com
