Mission Statement: To restore and conserve Maunalua Bay through community kuleana (responsibility).
Mālama Maunalua is committed to restoring the health of Maunalua Bay through habitat restoration, science and planning, and education and outreach. Restoring Maunalua Bay takes a community that understands the Bay is in trouble, believes the Bay is worth saving, and has hope that the decline can be reversed. Our work is driven by these community members who help improve the quality of Maunalua Bay.
Organization Background:
In 2005, a hui of long-time residents in the Maunalua Bay region met to discuss the deteriorating state of Maunalua Bay. The Bay that they knew from childhood had changed. Healthy fish populations were decreasing, healthy reef habitat was disappearing, and water quality was becoming increasingly more polluted. They were concerned that if nothing was done, the Bay they knew and loved would be lost forever.
With no organization focused solely on restoring the Bay, they formed Mālama Maunalua to reverse the trends they were witnessing. Their vision for the organization is that it brings together the community, experts, non-profits, and government agencies to reverse the Bay’s degradation and restore it to a healthy state that people can enjoy for generations to come.
The Great Huki Project
In July of 2009, Congress (through NOAA’s Restoration Center) provided $3.4 million via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to The Nature Conservancy to address the threat of marine invasive species in Maunalua Bay on Oahu, Hawaii to stimulate the economy. The Nature Conservancy worked in collaboration with Mālama Maunalua and local business Pono Pacific to successfully scale up a community-based effort and take the first critical step in restoring a once-healthy and productive Bay.
The Maunalua Bay Reef Restoration Project, or “The Great Huki” Project had three distinct yet interdependent goals:
- To remove a significant section of the densest distribution areas of invasive alien algae in Maunalua Bay as a first, critical step toward ecological restoration of coral reef and seagrass beds;
- To create employment and stimulate emergent ‘blue-green’ enterprises on Oahu; and
- To build sufficient community capacity in the Bay that will result in expanded and sustained local reef management efforts. Each goal has an associated set of objectives.
By the Numbers
- 23 acres
of reef ecosystem cleared of invasive alien algae - 75 jobs
created or retained - 4 million dollars
dedicated to addressing the threat of invasive alien algae in Maunalua Bay - 3 million pounds
of invasive alien algae removed - 100% of invasive algae composted
for five local farmers
- 3,000 community members
who volunteered - 12 schools engaged
to participate - 8 local businesses
engaged to participate - 7,000 total volunteer hours
by the community
More from the Great Huki!
The organization has had numerous successes since its founding. Thanks to tremendous community support, MM has been able to:
- Lead over 30,000 volunteers in habitat restoration efforts
- Remove 4 million pounds of invasive alien algae
- Educate thousands of students and community members each year through classroom visits, public outreach events, and Tree to Sea Camp
- Install 7 rain gardens and other best management practices at schools, shopping centers, and public spaces
- Implement one of the premier internship programs in the region that has welcomed over 100 interns
- Co-lead the largest water quality assessment in state history
- Work in the 10 watersheds of Maunalua to mitigate sources of runoff
- Donate $3.7 million worth of soil amendment for area farms
- Fragment and plant climate-resilient corals, a first of its kind coral restoration project in state history
- And much much more
Why Maunalua Bay?
Maunalua Bay is situated along the southeast shores of O’ahu. The bay is a 6.5 square mile body of ocean and nearshore reef that stretches from Kawaihoa (Koko Head Point) to Kūpikipikiʻō (Black Point). It is one of the largest bays in the main Hawaiian Islands that is heavily used by residents across the island for food, livelihood, cultural preservation, and recreation.
Maunalua Bay once flourished with an abundance of diverse fish, plant and marine life. Early residents fished, gathered and farmed sustainably. Land was divided into sections that ran from the mountains to the sea and were managed as one system. What happened in one part affected the other parts, so people worked as a community to protect the land and water resources from mauka to makai. From the 1880s to the 1950s, Maunalua changed as the population grew. During this period, Maunalua was known for cattle grazing, farming and its abundant fisheries.
While Maunalua Bay remained productive, changes in land use, including clearing of vegetation for grazing and farming, started its decline. Rapid urbanization began in the 1950s. Natural surfaces were paved over and concrete channels were built to protect our houses from flooding by funneling rainwater into Maunalua Bay, and invasive alien algae came to Maunalua Bay over the past decades, some accidentally as “visitors” on ships and others intentionally for experiment or sale. Over time, the konohiki system of strict fishing regulations and enforcement was left behind, more people fished and the marine environment decayed, all resulting in dwindling fish populations.
Today’s problems in the Bay – the pollution, the invasive alien algae, the loss of white sandy beaches, native limu and seagrass, fish and coral – occurred over time as a result of these changes. Mālama Maunalua and the community can help reverse this sliding downward trajectory and bring back a healthy Maunalua Bay.
Mālama Maunalua is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It was founded in 2006, and received its federal non-profit status in 2010. All donations are tax deductible. It is organizational policy that subcontractors, and partner organizations on Mālama Maunalua grants, exercise a maximum 10% indirect rate.