The Kumuola Marine Science Education Center (Kumuola) is a program of Kamehameha Schools Hawai?i that centers learning around the rehabilitation of three loko i?a (traditional Hawaiian fishpond systems) in Hilo, Hawai?i. Loko i?a are engineered aquaculture systems designed to capture and slow down land-derived nutrients carried by surface and subsurface waters to the shorelines as a means to promote nearshore primary productivity and support a web of primarily herbivorous fish. Between their initial construction ~800 years ago to present, these dynamic systems have faced a number of challenges to include diversion of fresh water, urbanization, invasive species introductions, land use and tenure changes, and reductions of native fish stocks. Increasing actions to rehabilitate and care for this traditional aquaculture practice is growing in Hawai?i through a diversity of organizations and community efforts. Understanding the contemporary functioning of loko i?a through scientific observation and recordation is leading to new understandings of both the challenges and opportunities that theses spaces face to once again become sources of pride and protein within their community.
Kanda, O. engeli, were introduced to Hawai?i in 1953 as part of a baitfish establishment effort to support the pelagic Hawaiian fisheries, and have since grown to become a significant and dominant herbivore in Hawai?i’s nearshore brackish water estuaries and fishponds. Daily observational data from 2019-present, combined with genetic barcoding of wild pua (juvenile mullet species) by our students, indicates a 1:9 to a 1:50 dominance of kanda recruits over the native ?ama?ama (Mugil cephalus) into the fishponds at Kumuola (Fig. 1). Further analysis of our data also identifies: 1) native ?ama?ama have spawned outside of their protected no-take season during the study period, and 2) juvenile kanda recruitment into the fishponds at Kumuola are correlated to anahulu (traditional groupings of lunar phases).
We aim to celebrate traditional knowledge and resource management systems through integration of students into research to revitalize traditional aquaculture as contemporary practice. This work is an update to a World Aquaculture presentation shared in Honolulu in 2020.