Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawai‘i

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 19:00:45 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/restoring-indigenous-aquaculture-heals-both-ecosystems-and-communities-in-hawaii/>

"For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture
systems, fishponds known as loko i‘a, serve as nurseries that seed fish
populations in surrounding waters. For the first time, a team of scientists
from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have modeled this feat of
Indigenous science in a study.

“We are using science to translate ‘ike kupuna, or Indigenous knowledge, into
policy,” said study co-author Kawika Winter, an ecologist at HIMB and He‘eia
National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). “The value of this paper is that
it’s one of the first, if not the first, to really show that there are ways to
do aquaculture in ways that benefit the system around it.”

In partnership with He‘eia NERR and Paepae o He‘eia, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to stewarding the He‘eia loko i‘a, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond
enclosing 36 hectares (88 acres) of brackish water, the team simulated
different restoration scenarios in Kāne‘ohe Bay on O‘ahu Island based on a
simplified food web. The study found that restoring more of the bay into fully
functional loko iʻa would grow fish populations not just within the ponds, but
across the bay."

Via Fix the News:
<https://fixthenews.com/good-news-democracy-india-reproductive-rights-ozone/>

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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