Maunalua Bay to Benefit from Stimulus Money and Community Commitment
Organized by Malama Maunalua, a community group dedicated to the conservation and restoration of the part of Oahu stretching, mauka and makai, from Black Point in Kahala to Koko Head in Hawaii Kai, students are removing destructive invasive plants - leather mudweed - from Maunalua Bay.
“When you walk around out here, you see it’s just goops of mud,” says the group’s outreach coordinator, Andrew Laurence. “The mudweed just holding it there like a sponge. And what happens is that when they clear an area, 30–45 minutes after the currents clear out the mud, you’ll be walking on solid sand. It happens that fast.”
Malama Maunalua has organized pulls (huki) since 2006. More than 700 volunteers have removed 30 tons of mudweed from the bay. These areas have remained clear allowing for the return of native fish and the first step toward recovery of a valued yet threatened ecosystem.
Beginning this month, the huki enters a new phase, as 50 workers, paid with federal stimulus dollars, begin working full-time in concert with the volunteers. The goal is to clear 2,000 tons of mudweed and other invasive algae from four sites along Maunalua Bay, and in so doing to clear the way for the return of the reefs, seaweeds and fishes that are vital to its overall health. Funds have been awarded through NOAA and the project will be coordinated by the Nature Conservancy, a long-time partner of Malama Maunalua.
NOAA selected the Malama Maunalua project, along with a few dozen others, from more than 800 applicants around the United States. “The three main criteria for NOAA,” Laurence says, “were that projects be shovel-ready, have community support and be rooted in science.”
Once the algae is removed from the ocean, both the volunteer and professional groups will take it back to farmers and other agricultural operations in order to convert its compost into a natural fertilizer for local farms. Ed Otsuji, who farms 20 different vegetables on six acres in the back of Hawaii Kai, says he is testing the compost now but has “no doubt” it will work.
Malama Maunalua’s efforts over the past decade point to a model of community action that goes beyond big talk and occasional outings and enters the realm of real and substantive environmental progress. Read about the past and present efforts of Malama Maunalua at Honolulu Weekly.