Sunday, January 25, 2015

Helping Out

This was the reason I had to leave fishing yesterday - Community Day at the Heeia Fish Pond. If you have been following this blog, you'll note that I have been intrigued by Polynesian and Hawaiian culture for a long time. Celestial navigation, fishing techniques and watercraft are but a few of the focus areas I have delved into over time. But yesterday I got to help restore an 800 year old structure. So I actually didn't get to place rock - I got to take down a bunch of mangrove trees that were brought in the collect sediment that washed downstream from the Heeia River. The mangroves over time colonized and took out the fish pond. There is a non-profit organization working to restore the fish pond and use it as a teaching lab and eventually as a sustainable fish farm. I used to docent at the Waikiki Aquarium the last time I lived out here and they had a model of how the fish ponds worked and the features the Hawaiians built into them. There used to be so many of these farms that having fish to eat was not hard. It is going to be awesome seeing the last pieces go back into place and watching the place come back alive!

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