Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawaiāi
For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture systems, fishponds known as loko iāa, serve as nurseries that seed fish populations in surrounding waters. For the first time, a team of scientists from the HawaiŹ»i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have modeled this feat of Indigenous science in a study.
āWe are using science to translate āike kupuna, or Indigenous knowledge, into policy,ā said study co-author Kawika Winter, an ecologist at HIMB and Heāeia National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR).
āThe value of this paper is that itās one of the first, if not the first, to really show that there are ways to do aquaculture in ways that benefit the system around it.ā
In partnership with Heāeia NERR and Paepae o Heāeia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to stewarding the Heāeia loko iāa, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond enclosing 36 hectares (88 acres) of brackish water, the team simulated different restoration scenarios in KÄneāohe Bay on Oāahu Island based on a simplified food web. The study found that restoring more of the bay into fully functional loko iŹ»a would grow fish populations not just within the ponds, but across the bay.
āAquaculture has a really bad reputation for basically destroying areas around it, but those are commercial approaches to aquaculture that arenāt holistic in their thinking or values-based like Indigenous management,ā Winter said. āRather than ensuring the health of the system, commercial aquaculture is concerned with maximizing profits.ā
Winter attributed the success of the loko iāa design to Indigenous thought processes: āIndigenous thinking is operating within the opportunities and constraints of this system and figuring out a way to make things abundant within that context, sometimes even increasing abundance beyond natural levels.
Restoring ecosystems and relationships
Since co-founding Paepae o Heāeia in 2001, study co-author Hiāilei Kawelo, a sixth-generation Hawaiian from KÄneāohe Bay, has witnessed thousands of volunteers transform the Heāeia loko iāa.
With the ongoing restoration, Paepae o Heāeia has seen both the aquatic environment and participantsā well-being improve with increased access to traditional foods, strengthening their relationship to place, and fortifying their family and community relationships. āFor me and for a lot of our employees, this is one of our outlets, if not our primary outlet for exercising aloha āÄina [love of the land],ā Kawelo said.
āāÄina is so important, because it is a term for a system that has the nature and its people in an inseparable reciprocal relationship,ā Winter said. āThe concept is core to this work because itās about getting back into a way of thinking where there is no separation between the lands, the waters and us.ā
While the overarching goal of Paepae o Heāeia and other fishponds is to revitalize Hawaiāiās extensive Indigenous aquaculture system, Kotubetey said he knows the work may take generations.
For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture systems, fishponds known as loko iāa, serve as nurseries that seed
