Kaʻapuni Oʻahu

Today, many hard working volunteers came to Maunalua Beach Park to kokua in pulling a large amount of invasive alien seaweed from the bay. Others picked up ʻōpala along the shoreline and in the boat ramp parking lot.

The event was in celebration of Hui Nalu Canoe Clubs 100th birthday and was called "Kaʻapuni Oʻahu" in which the canoe club paddled around the island of Oʻahu. Duke Kahanamoku who was born in 1890 was one of the founders of Hui Nalu in 1908 (he would have been 18 years of age) and was a classmate of one of my aunties (my grandmothers sister) at Kaʻahumanu School in the late 1890ʻs and early 1900ʻs.

As a side note, I knew Dukeʻs brother, Sarge Kahanamoku and his wife when I was in high school and I worked at the Niu Valley Shopping Center hardware store (called "Handyman") in the mid 1970ʻs. He would come in and ask for me when he needed assistance. I would sometimes deliver stuff out of the back of my old yellow Datsun pick-up truck to his townhouse in Maunalua when he lived on Spinnaker Isle on the marina. He was a super nice guy and would always give me a nice tip after delivering stuff to him.

Also included in the celebrations and in partnership with Hui Nalu Canoe Club, Mālama Maunalua and other groups in the community were environmental, cultural & educational awareness activities in conjunction with the "International Year of the Reef" campaign.

Community service projects on this Memorial Day weekend included working with "Paepae o Heʻeia" and their Heʻeia fish pond restoration project, "Nani o Waiʻanae" and their Nānākuli Beach clean up & finally today finishing up at Maunalua with "Mālama Maunalua" and their alien algae removal and beach clean up.

Hui Nalu canoes shuttled volunteers back & forth and brought in bag after bag of alien seaweed to be loaded into trucks, disposed of or used for mulch. According to Eric Co who spearheaded the alien algae removal effort, 3705 lbs of alien algae was removed or nearly a half acre was cleared of the invasive seaweed. Quite an accomplishment I would say!

Mahalo nui to all for all your good work.