Hui O Ka Wai Ola is a partnership of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council (MNMRC), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), West Maui Ridge to Reef (R2R) Initiative and University of Hawaii Maui College in collaboration with the State of Hawaii Department of Health (DOH).
Hui O Ka Wai Ola is the first community-based water quality monitoring program in the State that periodically measures turbidity (a measure of water clarity) and nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorous) in near shore ocean waters and makes this data available to the public. "Our goal is to support the Department of Health and Maui County efforts to improve coastal water quality so that coral reefs and native fish populations thrive, and our residents and visitors are safe,” said Robin Newbold, Co-founder and Chair of MNMRC. “We want to help identify problem areas, so remedial action may be taken as needed.” To fund the expansion to South Maui, MNMRC worked with TNC and R2R to obtain a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant. The grant provides matching funds to an award from Maui County OED. With this funding, the program was able to purchase water quality testing equipment and supplies and hired Sofia de la Sota as the new South Maui Regional Coordinator for Hui O Ka Wai Ola. North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund, Napili Bay and Beach Foundation and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provide funding for the West Maui program. Listen to a recent interview with Dana Reed about the expansion of Hui O Ka Wai Ola on HPR's The Conversation. 1/20/2023 07:37:25 am
Our Hui O Ka Wai Ola program has reduced the number of sites it is monitoring from 41 to 33 as of August 2020. Our Hui O Ka Wai Ola Technical Committee recommended eight sites to "pause" and one site to discontinue after carefully analyzing the information our volunteers have gathered since June 2016 for one or more of the following reasons: we have a good understanding of their water quality dynamics, these sites have little to no pollution or fluctuation, no management is currently underway for contributing land-based pollution, and/or there is no permanent funding available to continue monitoring. Comments are closed.
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August 2024
Photo: Header - Bruce Forrester
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