{"id":227424,"date":"2025-12-29T10:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=227424"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T22:59:16","slug":"completion-heeia-fishpond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/29\/completion-heeia-fishpond\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> joins hands for historic completion of Heʻeia Fishpond"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"people
Graduate students from the Heʻeia<\/span> National Estuarine Research Reserve and HIMB<\/abbr> working alongside k\u016bpuna and fellow stewards. (Photo credit: Sean Marrs Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a monumental achievement, members of the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> community joined forces with more than 2,000 volunteers to celebrate the historic completion of the Heʻeia<\/span> Fishpond wall on December 13. The event at the Loko Iʻa<\/span> o Heʻeia<\/span> in Koʻolaupoko<\/span>, Oʻahu<\/span>, marked the culmination of a 25-year restoration of the ancient kuap\u0101 (fishpond wall).<\/p>\n

Volunteers mobilized for “MOʻOKUAP\u0100<\/span>,” employing traditional methods such as halihali to pass coral and rock to complete the final 300 feet of the 7,000-foot circular wall. Paepae o Heʻeia<\/span>, the nonprofit established in 2001 by Native Hawaiians to m\u0101lama (care for\/steward) the fishpond, spearheaded this monumental undertaking.<\/p>\n

\"volunteers
Volunteers filling up buckets with ko\u02bba that will be passed along the line of 2000 volunteers to the final section of the fishpond wall. (Photo credit: Sean Marrs Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We are connecting the past to the present with a promise of 800 more years of abundance in this community, just like our k\u016bpuna did 800 years ago,” said Executive Director Hiʻilei<\/span> Kawelo, a UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alumna.<\/p>\n

The wall’s completion secured the future of this vital cultural landmark and critical living laboratory. As the site of the Heʻeia<\/span> National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), the 88-acre fishpond is intrinsically linked to UH<\/abbr>‘s research community. Paepae o Heʻeia<\/span>, which manages the site in partnership with Kamehameha Schools, uses the fishpond as a place of learning, weaving ancestral knowledge with contemporary research methodologies. UH<\/abbr> scientists work closely with community members to develop studies aimed at restoring the system\u2019s ecological function and productivity.<\/p>\n

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Celebrations after the event. (Photo credit: Sean Marrs Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Faculty, staff, and students have been giving sweat to the fishpond monthly at our NERR Laulima workdays, and it showed on this day. Paepae o Heʻeia<\/span> trusted these select researchers enough to stand alongside longtime \u02bb\u0101ina stewards and help lead the 2,000 volunteers,” said Aimee Sato, Indigenous Stewardship Coordinator with the Heʻeia<\/span> NERR<\/abbr> and the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a>. “Once we were all in the maroon alakaʻi<\/span> (group leader) shirts, we were all one, and there was no distinction between researcher or m\u0101lama ʻ\u0101ina<\/span> steward. There is still work to do in strengthening restoration projects and relationships, but I am hopeful we see more of this across Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the UH<\/abbr> community joined forces with more than 2,000 volunteers to celebrate the historic completion of the Heʻeia<\/span> Fishpond wall on December 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":227423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[53,92,9],"class_list":["post-227424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-himb-heeia-fishpond.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227424"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227677,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227424\/revisions\/227677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}