Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 8, 1 August 2015 — Fishponds increase knowledge-sharing [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Fishponds increase knowledge-sharing

By Lisa Asato The organization Kua'āina Ulu 'Auamo works to support groups with an interest in caring for Hawai'i's natural and cultural resources. In 2013, the nonprofit received a grant from OHA to focus some of its energies on supporting Hui Mālama Loko I'a - an association of fishponds across the state - by providing leadership, organizational skills, networking and showing how collaboration ean be realized to good effect. "The hui is a consortium that is independent of KUA, and we think of KUA as just a facilitating organization for the hui," said Brenda Asuncion, KUA's coordinator of loko i'a, or fishponds.

KUA's work revolves around the concept that "people in their places on their land often have the best solutions for their challenges or they ean learn from eaeh other to make progress together," Asuncion said. "It's not like we have to provide or teach people how to do it. But we need to provide the space for them to teach eaeh other." Asuncion said the highlights of the two-year grant were two statewide gatherings, on Maui in 2014 and on O'ahu in 2015. Since its founding in 2004, Hui Mālama Loko I'a has grown to almost 40 fishponds and complexes, whieh are fishponds that lie near eaeh other and are stewarded by a single organization, she said. Grants from OHA, Conservation International's Hawai'i Fish Trust and Paeihe Aquaculture

and Coastal Resources Center, helped offset travel and on-island costs for two participants from eaeh of the almost 40 member organizations to attend. About 120 people attended, Asuncion said. The gatherings offer "a time when they ean share with eaeh other, say how their year has been going, what kind of challenges they've been coming up against and share creative solutions they've been coming up with," she said. "It's probably the one time everyone ean see eaeh other face to face." Additional gatherings organized by KUA focused on topics such as the importance of water quality and how it ean be helpful for loko i'a management. A follow-up training taught practitioners how to use equipment to monitor water quality.

www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

LAND & WATER

The Hui Mālama Loko l'a 201 5 annual gathering featured work projects, including this one at Huilua fishpond in Kahana, O'ahu. - Courtesy photos: Mark Lee

Hui Mālama Loko l'a at the 201 4 annual gathering on Maui near Leho'ula, whieh is recognized as the first fishpond. It was built by Kū'ula. - Courtesy: Franz Schmutzer

"That's more the capacity-building end of it," Asuncion said. In a sign of leadership skills being passed on, an offshoot group in Kona in West Hawai'i has formed and plans to meet on its own. That group combines caretakers of the area's fishponds, as well as those representing anehialine pools, whieh by their nature aren't part of the hui. Anehialine pools are enclosed bodies of water, varying in salinity, that have an underground eonneehon to the oeean. "They've committed to meeting four times in 2015 so they ean collaborate on a regional level," Asuncion said. "That to me has been a really niee outcome, because we've been able to provide a foundation of people collaborating more. . . . Those people in Kona have made a step forward to doing that. They've been talking about what their eommon challenges are and what solutions they ean start implementing together." Joylynn Paman, executive director of 'Ao'ao o Nā Loko I'a o Maui, association of the fishponds of Maui, says she was in awe of the skills of practitioners who helped build a rock wall at Kō'ie'ie fishpond in Klhei, Maui, during the annual gathering in 2014. "It was just amazing to see how quickly the wall could eome up and how pa'a (solid) the wall would be when you have the right people doing it," she said. "We have people trained in building our fishpond wall, but . . . the wall crumbles faster than we ean put it up," she said, referring to the destructive effects of the high wave energy of Maui's south swells.

"When KUA brought all the practitioners here that was very invigorating to see how other practitioners build a wall," she added. "So for my crew, it was a very positive experience." That wall, built in the deeper areas of 4 to 5 feet, is still standing, Paman said. Paman says the annual gatherings help people stay in touch and keep momentum going. Conference calls are also held every 45 days or so, to help fishpond leaders keep active on smaller projects throughout the state, and mini gatherings called Hookua are set to begin soon. The idea arose out of the 2014 gathering on Maui and has attracted grant funding from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, Asuncion said. Paman's group will host the first event at Ko'ie'ie fishpond, where master hale builder Frank Sinenci will share building techniques for kuapā, or fishpond walls, and mākaha, or sluice gates, for about 20-30 participants, Paman said. In an email, Pi'i Laeha, keeper of Kalāhuipua'a Loko I'a in Moku o Hawai'i, South Kohala Coast, Ahupua'a Waimea, praised KUA's work. "KUA's team has been the driving force in the positive progression of Hui Mālama Loko I'a, our statewide fishpond consortium," Laeha said. "As individual 'ponds,' our capacity for expansion was limited by our resources . . . some grew, most struggled. Through the leadership and relentless communication of KUA, there is now a network in plaee that many of the hui, from all islands, has benefited from. The physical and spiritual growth of our Hui Mālama Loko I'a in our society today is directly connected to the attributes of KUA." ■

Keahi Pi'iohia, left, of He'eia fishpond on O'ahu and Leimana Naki of Kahinapōhaku fishpond on Moloka'i work side by side at Huilua fishpond.