KA PILI KAI
Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s free biannual magazine celebrates the people and places across the Pacific region and our deep connection to all things related to the sea through vivid photographs and inspiring stories.
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RECENT KA PILI KAI ISSUES
Ka Pili Kai Ho‘oilo 2023
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. On the Cover The numbers are hard to envision— 8 million metric tons of plastics entering the ocean each year—but the result is something we’ve all experienced: plastics on the ...
Ka Pili Kai Kau 2023
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. On the Cover Welcome to our latest issue, dedicated to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Through this initiative, the world's attention is focused on the ...
ALL KA PILI KAI ARTICLES AND ISSUES
Sea Education Association: Studying Microplastics Aboard a Tall Ship
by Mallory HoffbeckUndergraduate student Noah van Aardenne stands lookout on the bow of the tall ship SSV Robert C. Seamans, holding on to the forestay as the ship tosses. He watches the horizon for rain clouds, marine animals, or rare ...
Act Local, Act Global
by Lurline Wailana McGregorWhen the last of its four counties implemented laws to ban plastic bags from store checkouts in 2021, Hawaiʻi became the first in the nation with a full statewide ban. Since then, the City and County of ...
Supply, Demand, and our Sea of Debris
by MARIA FROSTICWith the ocean on track to teem with more plastic than fish by the year 2050, marine debris is making waves in local and global economies. Damage from marine litter on the global marine economy was estimated at ...
Paving the Road, from Cleanup to Repurposing
by Mark MarchandThere’s an “all hands on deck” effort underway to understand and counter the growing issue of derelict fishing nets and other plastic debris washing up on Hawaiʻi’s shores and reefs, and in its harbors. Organizations and individuals—environmentally conscious ...
Getting to the Bottom of U.S. Ocean Plastic Pollution: a Conversation with Leading Experts
by Tess JoosseThe United States uses and discards the most plastic in the world, churning out a whopping 42 million metric tons each year. Despite this distinction, as recently as 2020 the full scale of the U.S.’s contribution to ocean ...
Preserving a Precious Place
by Libby LeonardThe Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant, describes the area of Papahānaumokuākea as the realm of Pō, where life springs from a single coral polyp, and where spirits return upon death. Papahānaumokuākea got its name in 2007 from two ...
Ka Pili Kai Ho‘oilo 2023
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. On the Cover The numbers are hard to envision— 8 million metric tons of plastics entering the ocean each year—but the result is something we’ve all experienced: plastics on the ...
Ka Pili Kai Kau 2023
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. On the Cover Welcome to our latest issue, dedicated to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Through this initiative, the world's attention is focused on the ...
Adding Value to Island Waste
by Stacy KishDespite the best efforts to contain it, untreated waste from the 88,000 cesspools in Hawai‘i escapes the confines of the system, polluting coastlines and endangering marine life and coral ecosystems. When treated properly, much of the wastewater is ...
Restoring Water Quality and Bringing Back Coral Reef Ecosystems: Lessons from Kāneʻohe Bay
by Abbey SeitzOver the past century, wastewater, stormwater, and other pollutants from land and development have damaged our islands’ coastal ecosystems and nearshore waters. This degradation is due in part to the islands’ increasing urbanization coinciding with global warming. Given ...
Sewage in the seas
by Natasha VizcarraIt’s easy to get lost in the weeds finding out how to empty that portable 5-gallon toilet at the back of the boat. A simple Google search turns up a messy list of how-to videos, along with state ...
How Clean is Clean?
by Lurline Wailana McGregorBefore the Clean Water Act of 1972 became law, most of the agricultural wastewater and sewage from the Kaʻanapali coast on Maui, Hawai‘i was treated to remove only solids before being piped out into the ocean. After ...
Transforming the Ala Wai
by Josh McDanielFew of the millions of tourists who flock to the sparkling beaches of Waikīkī are aware that the area was once a vast estuary fed by three streams, Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo, which plunged from the steep slopes ...
Making #2 a #1 Priority
by Kate FurbyStuart Coleman loves potty humor. But unlike the rest of us, he has a work excuse. And while not all of his puns are suitable for print journalism, suffice it to say that he approaches his work on ...
Tackling Cesspool Conversion from Long Island to the Hawaiian Islands
by Shannon KelleherAs Hawai‘i prepares to carry out a massive overhaul of its numerous cesspools by 2050, the state finds itself in a quandary — waste treatment is expensive, and homeowners’ pockets only run so deep. “This is one of ...
Wanted: Wastewater Wins
by Robin Donovan“It’s not a million-dollar question; it’s a billion-dollar question,” says Sina Pruder of Hawaiʻi’s cesspool conversion challenge. As an engineering program manager for the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health’s (DOH) wastewater branch, Pruder has faced a daunting ...
Ka Pili Kai Ho‘oilo 2022
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. On the Cover Magazine covers are meant to inspire the reader to pause and reflect on the transformative potential of an issue’s contents. Through what they bring into focus, they offer a scaffold ...
Home Aquaponics – Your Next Passion?
by Liz ColeyIn 2011, author, educator, entrepreneur Sylvia Bernstein wrote AQUAPONIC GARDENING: A Step by Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together to share her passion with the uninitiated. The book offers an engaging and practical deep dive into ...
Farming on a Loop
by Jake BuehlerIn Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, physical space for agriculture is substantially more limited than on continental landmasses. This has made farming practices that combine efficiency with a low impact on land and water use especially useful for producing ...
Reviving Cultural Practices and Restoring Self: Rosalyn Concepcion
by Stacy KishThe 400-year old stone walls of Waikalua Loko Iʻa, a Hawaiian fishpond in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, retain a history that has almost been lost to disrepair during the past century. Rosalyn (Roz) Concepcion has been working to restore the ...
Farming the Open Ocean—Is Offshore Aquaculture in Hawaiʻi the Future of Seafood?
by Josh McDanielOn the island of Hawai‘i, about a half mile off Keāhole Point near Kona, nine large net pens teem with hundreds of thousands of kanpachi (Seriola rivoliana, or longfin amberjack). Blue Ocean Mariculture’s kanpachi fish farm is the ...
Propagating resilience
by Natasha VizcarraIt was a warm, cloudy Saturday at Maunalua Bay Beach Park. Under a blue tent, masked volunteers at the Mālama Maunalua Hana Pūko‘a event bent over water saws to gingerly cut coral into large thumb-sized pieces. Under a ...
Sharing the Catch
by Robin DonovanIf you read the news, it’s everywhere: rising sea levels, warming oceans, degraded coastlines, and dying coral reefs. The consequences of climate change are apparent around the globe, but for fish-loving island communities like those in American Samoa, ...
Can Hawaiian Fishpond Technology Increase Food Security?
by Lurline Wailana McGregor“Wehe i ka mākāhā i komo ka iʻa,” open the fish gate that the fish may enter, is an ʻōlelo noʻeau (Hawaiian proverb) referencing a strategy used to trap fish in the loko iʻa, as well as ...
Raising the Next Generation of Aquatic Farmers
by Shannon WianeckiThe term “aquaculture” encompasses everything from restoring traditional fishponds to rearing seahorses for aquariums and reducing greenhouse gases with red algae. It’s a diverse field, and it’s booming: it’s the fastest growing sector of the agricultural industry worldwide, ...
Ka Pili Kai Kau 2022
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. Cultivating sustainability through aquaculture ʻO nā loko iʻa, ʻo ia nō kekahi mau mea hiluhilu o ka Pae ʻĀina ʻo Hawaiʻi, a ua hana maoli ʻia e ka poʻe kahiko ...
Ka Pili Kai Ho‘oilo 2021
Click on the cover image to view the full issue. Science is Art Art is Science Mai ka moana ākea, nā ʻāina ā puni, ka lewa lani ā ka lewa lipo, ua mālamalama ke ao kānaka i ka wili pū ...
From Loss to Recovery to Resilience
by Lurline Wailana McGregorIn 2018, Hurricane Walaka circumvented the Hawaiian Islands before circling back to pass directly over Kānemilohaʻi, also known as the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll 550 miles northwest of Honolulu. It washed away East Island, an 11-acre ...
Turning up the Heat: the evolving threat of wildfire
by Keri KodamaIn July 2019, an 8000-acre brush fire, fueled by an abundance of dry vegetation and an oppressive heat wave, consumed Central Maui. The blaze began as a roadside fire and spread rapidly with help from the wind. Within ...
Climigration: A look to the future for environmental migrants
by Amanda MillinNearly three decades ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that “the gravest effects of climate change may be those on human migration.” Estimates differ widely, but most experts agree that upwards of 25 million people ...
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