I wanted to come out and see firsthand what some of our community activists are trying
to alert the rest of the citizens about.
We are here to protect the INA for the future generations and we really feel that we are
protectors and a voice for the INA and that we really need to think about our children.
The continuing hardening of the shoreline all the way from Ukomahame, miles down this
way, here to Oluwalu and beyond.
The coastal erosion is undermining the Hanoa-Pi'ilani Highway in a number of places and the
long-term solution is clear, move the road away from the ocean.
Science throughout the world has proved that if you fix and harden the shoreline in one
location you may temporarily save what's immediately behind it, in this case the road, but long
term it will have negative impacts on the beach and the coast adjacent to where you've
hardened it.
Sea walls and shoreline armoring and bordering does not work.
They are stop-gap solutions for an ongoing problem that will continue to get greater
if we do not address it first.
We are here at Mile Marker 16 on just north of Oluwalu.
You can see behind me that this is the project area.
We are gathered here at Avalua in Oluwalu.
We've been gathered here since Sunday evening camping out here and just trying to raise
awareness and educate people about the bordering project proposed here that will destroy about
a thousand and fifty-two feet of our prime beach resource here.
Avalua is very special, especially to us as Native Hawaiians.
It's where we come together, Ili-Ili and Pohakutukuii.
It's a very special place.
It's a popular surf spot and we're really here because we want to stop the state from
doing these type of projects that are temporary fixes that protect the road but destroy our
beaches at the same time and we need to come to a point.
The state needs to realize that the road needs to move Maoka as soon as possible.
We're here at Oluwalu today because, again, this reef is under threat of development.
But this time, instead of a new town, the threat is a sea wall that would go up and
block the incoming waves and the wave action.
With the wall being put up, the waves would come in and the energy would continue to crush
and destroy coral, decreasing the vertical habitat that fish need to survive.
It would also and is causing in events like this major siltation and that wave action
continues to suspend the particulate matter and it creates a blanket effect and so the
coral will die.
The entire West Maui coastline is critical Hawaiian monk seal habitat that's been federally
designated and you're not supposed to use federal funds to destroy or impair that
habitat.
I'm here today supporting our Ohana at Oluwalu, helping them to send a message to our state
leaders to make sure that the decisions that you're making today will not have a negative
impact on us in the future.
Every year, I mean beaches that we grew up camping at are completely gone.
We know for a fact that it's going to eliminate this stretch of beach.
It'll just be a boulder revetment that won't be usable by anyone.
The reefs out in Oluwalu are kupuna reefs.
They have the most biodiversity in our islands.
They're seed reefs.
They have an impact on the fringing reef outside Molokai, Lanai and Kaho Olave.
There is a solution.
There is a solution.
There's room.
We have more than enough room to move the Mauka up.
We have more than enough room to go around these critical areas that would probably cost
the same amount of money as these bouldering projects.
There is a Cain Hall Road right adjacent to us, not more than 50 yards from where I'm
standing that could be brought up to safety standards and then you have an alternate road.
Eventually, they're going to have to repair it and why keep wasting that money?
There's a Cain Hall Road right there that they could just pave and use that instead.
We must move the road to protect the reef that protects us.
The local people should be coming here and telling the stupid state guys, what for though?
They're screwing up our island.
We should tell them what for though.
Malama Oluwalu.
Growing up, we're taught to never turn our back on the ocean.
Let's not turn our back on the ocean now.
