The Wrack
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog.
A Visit To Heʻeia: Our Sister Reserve in Hawaii
Posted by
Jen LaVin
| April 2, 2025
| Filed under: Observations
Jen LaVin
Jen LaVin, Wells Reserve volunteer, ranger, and member of the Laudholm Trust Board of Trustees, joins us for a guest post to share her recent experience visiting our sister reserve in Hawaii. Read on to learn more!
On a recent trip to Hawaii, I had the great pleasure of spending an afternoon with the Director of the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve, Dr. Kawika Winter. A Hawaiian native, Kawika is also an Assistant Professor of Biocultural Ecology at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology.
Like the Wells Reserve, the Heʻeia Reserve is a part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) and represents a strong partnership between federal, state, and community-based organizations.
One of the things I found most interesting was Heʻeia’s focus on restoring habitats and on “dual fluency,” drawing on Indigenous and contemporary knowledge to manage Hawaii’s natural resources.
Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve encompasses 1,385 acres in and around Kāneʻohe Bay, the largest sheltered body of water in the Hawaiian Islands, on the windward shore of Oʻahu. It encompasses Heʻeia State Park to the north, Heʻeia Fishpond in the center, the wetlands of Hoi to the west and south, Moku o Loʻe (Coconut Island) to the east, and a large expanse of marine waters with patch and fringing reefs.
We spent most of our visit at the Heʻeia Fishpond, a walled coastal pond built 600-800 years ago that had been badly damaged following the introduction of non-native mangroves in the 1920s. Kawika explained that Hawaiian fishponds are Indigenous aquaculture systems that actually enhance the existing environment and populations of certain sea creatures and, historically, were the primary food source for locals, as they offer sustainable access to fish year round.
It’s estimated there were once close to 500 fishponds across the Hawaiian islands, but many disappeared during the 20th century due to Westernization, development, changes in land use, and the introduction of non-native vegetation. Fishponds were also lost to natural forces, including lava flows and tsunamis. According to local sources, there is an “expanding movement to restore fishponds as a way to grow food and to educate communities about culture and history.”
Over the past 20 years, the Heʻeia fishpond has been reconstructed – mostly by hand – by volunteers organized by Paepae o Heʻeia ("Threshold of Heʻeia"), a private non-profit organization, removing the invasive mangroves, repairing the walls of volcanic rocks and coral, and restoring its ability to hold and sustain a wide variety of herbivorous fish.
And, I have to say, the construction of these fishponds is ingenious.
The Heʻeia Fishpond has a 1.3-mile, hand-built seawall that is 12-15 feet wide and encloses 88 acres of brackish water. Freshwater run-off from irrigated agricultural terraces and natural streams and springs brings nutrients to the sea water that stimulate the growth of plankton and algae, creating a productive nursery for many species of fish.
As the tide comes in and out, small fish swim through the sluice channels cut into the wall, their size controlled by hand-made gates of tree branches. In this way, small fish are able to enter the pond and feed, but then get too large to pass back out, creating captive populations. Mature fish are attracted to the bubbles on the pond side during the incoming tide and on the ocean side during the outgoing tide, making net fishing quite easy.
Kawika and the Heʻeia NERR have been partnered with Paepae o He’eia since 2019 helping to remove invasive seaweed, a project on which they’ve made great progress. Their new challenge: how to remove the invasive jellyfish that are now taking over the pond. I jokingly suggested a large vacuum, which, surprisingly, they’ve actually considered! I’m looking forward to updates on this.
Mahalo to Kawika for taking the time to teach me about and tour me around the fishpond. It was an afternoon I’ll never forget–nearly halfway around the world–realizing that we’re all facing similar issues: effects from climate change, erosion (natural and man-made), invasive species, and more, while also enjoying the uniqueness of estuarine environments.
If planning a trip to Oahu, I highly recommend a visit to the fishpond. You could even schedule some time while on vacation to volunteer! Paepae o Heʻeia organizes events on both weekday mornings and Saturdays. RSVP here. Or, closer to home, the Wells Reserve is always looking for more volunteers. Sign up here to make a difference!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit due to dock work being done, but fun fact: besides being the location of the He’eia NERR labs, Coconut Island is the island seen in the opening credits of Gilligan’s Island!
Note: some content for this blog was sourced from the article “The Return of Ku’ula, Restoration of Hawaiian Fishponds”
by Josh McDaniel.
Jen LaVin is a full-time resident of Wells, Maine where she runs her own consulting business providing strategic communications advisory and writing services to life science industry clients. She is an avid traveler, a passionate nature photographer, a frequent volunteer at the Wells Reserve, and currently serves as a member of the Laudholm Board of Trustees.
