Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 7, 1 July 1988 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

Natioe Streamlife

By Patrick Ching Artist/Environmentalist Waterfalls plummetting into pristine streams that twist and wind their way down valley floors, flowing uninterrupted through the lowland areas and finally emptying into the surf and sea. This is what most Hawaiian streams were like a thousand years ago, before subdivisions and large plantations, before litter and ehemieal pollution, before jet skis and motorboats. Native stream animals thrived in abundance and completed their lives without ever swimming through polluted water or crawling across long stretches of cement culverts or being preyed upon by introduced animals. Today, many of the perennial streams statewide and nearly 60 percent of streams on O'ahu have been altered in some way to accommodate housing development, irrigation and other forms of land use. Among the native stream animals in Hawaii are the 'opae-kala-'ole (shrimp), the 'opae-'oeha'a (native prawn), the hihiwai (limpet-like mollusk) also known as wi, and various species of 'o'opu (gobies).

There is mueh to be learned about these native creatures of Hawai'i and collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult as these animals are fast disappearing from Hawai'i's waterways. One thing we do know is that all of these native stream animals spend part of their larval stage in the oeean before migrating upstream to live. These animals are reluctant to pass through streams that have been altered or polluted; thus many of Hawai'i's streams are no longer inhabited by native aquatic animals. Increasing pressure is being put on Hawai'i's remaining perennial streams to be altered to aecommodate housing, industry or recreation. Such actions may have severe effects on native wildlife and should be carefully thought out. For more information on this subject contact the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Office of Environmental Services, P. O. Box 50167, Honolulu, HI 96850.

The o'o'pu-nakea is the largest of Hawai'i's native gobies, growing over a foot in length. The pelvic fins of gobies are fused together to form a suction eup (inset) whieh the fish uses to climb up rocks and waterfalls to get to higher mountain streams.