When you think of Kahului, you might think of where to shop or how busy the hustle & bustle there are. But did you know that much of Kahului was actually part of Kanaha's twin fishponds?
The total area that the fishponds covered was about 143 acres in size. Only a part of one fishpond remains today and it is known as a bird sanctuary. That is Kanaha Sanctuary which has been dubbed a landmark in 1971. The Kanaha fishpond stretches as far as Haleakala Highway down to Kanaha Beach Park that we know today.
While people know that there is a history there, many haven't taken the time to see what that history is. Most people are more concerned with the recent battles going on down Kanaha Beach Park, where the county & state are pursuing a shut down to put an end to the daily problems that occur there. There is a 4-way battle going on about Kanaha in 2017 and honestly, none of it is truly perpetuated in righteousness, nor is any of it in the heart of restoration of life here. Sadly, its all about money and greed.
While the county is only looking to find ways to increase county revenues, corporations are looking at the "waterfront property" as a prime location to give the county that money. Then there are the people who move to Maui, refuse to get a job and form these little wind and kite surfing businesses that are clogging up the island's beaches with crowds that chase families and fish away. In a colonized and greedy mind, I don't blame any of the above, but I happen to be intelligent enough to know that money and sunscreen aren't going to feed my kids if real food doesn't grow. I am smart enough to know that if we as people of the world don't make some crucial changes, we won't have a world for our grandchildren to grow up in. These little points are already enough for me to judge against three of the parties in the four way battle.
The fourth party in the battle won't even go to court to fight the battle. Sadly, most of these people were descendants of those who cared for these ponds for centuries.
People cruise up and down Amala Road to the sights of trash strewn areas and much of that trash ends up in the ocean, blocking our waterways and adding another source of desecration to the already desecrated area. The wastewater facility spews its toxic waste product underground at the facility and the surrounding governing agencies ignore the pollution, citing that the sand will clean that up.
Meanwhile, akule has yet to return to the harbor and the remnant fishpond left there, is unable to properly flow due to the multiple issues in the surrounding area, including the dredging of the harbor which filled Mauoni Fishpond in 1910.
Mauoni Fishpond once extended to the old county fairgrounds area, close to where Kahului Safeway stands today. Both Mauoni and Kanaha were naturally occurring freshwater springs that our ancestors altered to more efficiently flow. Rumor has it that there were people passing rocks for upward to a half mile to do that.
If you were to try to find Mauoni Fishpond today, you would need to bring shopping money because all you would find is the retail and industrial areas of Kahului. If you wanted to see the fish in Kanaha Fishpond, you might want to prepare yourself to see birds and the occasional teenage mutant ninja turtle. About the best you will find in looking at fishponds of that area, might be to visit Island Grocery and see the fish in their little pond. It's about all there is left, of the massive twin fishponds that once spanned from Haleakala Highway to Kahului Harbor and upto about Pu'unene.
For more history on these twin fishponds as well as a plethora of other historical stories of Old Hawaii, please visit Peter T Young's website: Images of Old Hawaii
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