Ten years of no fishing has led to a huge recovery on a stretch of the Kona Coast. Now comes the hard part: Protecting those gains.<\/p>\n
Last week, state land board members struggled with what to do about three Hawai\u02bbi island men who poached more than 4,000 \u02bbopihi snails off the rocks at Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu, a shoreline that\u2019s recently transformed into one of the healthiest and plentiful stretches of the Kona Coast.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t always this way. Decades of development and increased public access had depleted the once thriving waters that elders remember teeming with marine life \u2014 surgeonfish, crabs, lobsters, squid and \u02bbopihi.<\/p>\n
Then, a decade ago, a 3.6-mile stretch of Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu and the neighboring region of K\u016bki\u02bbo were placed entirely off-limits to fishing under a novel, community-led moratorium called \u201cTry Wait.\u201d That project, enforced by the state and the only one of its kind in Hawai\u02bbi, was set to expire this month.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kahuwai-Bay4-1024x683.jpeg\")
A crab moves along the rocks at Kahuwai Bay, part of the Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu Marine Reserve. The 10-year moratorium on fishing there still hasn\u2019t lifted, while community members hash out rules to protect the gains. (Twilight Greenaway\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
Now, the shoreline probably won\u2019t reopen until later this year because community groups, cultural practitioners and longtime local families are still trying to hash out the proper fishing limits with state aquatic officials.\u00a0They don\u2019t want to move too fast and squander the decade-long sacrifice the community made by staying out of those waters.<\/p>\n
As proof of its allure, Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu\u2019s successful rebound has drawn at least two major poaching events in the past year there, including the \u02bbopihi harvest, which occurred in September. Advocates say those incidents heighten the need to get the rules and enforcement right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place has been closed for 10 years and we want to make sure that the reopening is done very carefully,\u201d said Rebecca Most, executive director of Hui Kahuwai, a nonprofit that plans to manage those fishing grounds with the state\u2019s Division of Aquatic Resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our biggest fears,\u201d Most said, \u201cis that the depletion happens rapidly and we lose the gains of Try Wait.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal, she added, is to sustain at least 75% of the fish biomass gained during the moratorium.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Reefs Feel Alive Again\u2019<\/p>\n
Try Wait launched in June 2016, following several decades of activism by local families to protect those nearshore resources as development brought more visitors to the area.\u00a0The fishing grounds now rest in front of some of the most valuable and exclusive real estate on the Big Island, including the Four Seasons Resort Hual\u0101lai.<\/p>\n
Many families and lineal descendants who grew up in the area, including Hui Kahuwai President Hannah Springer, witnessed a sharp decline in the marine life there during their lifetimes. They remember a far more abundant era \u2013 one they long hoped to bring back or at least get close to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big, the shiny, the rare and charismatic shell life clinging to the rocks (and) burying in the sand was remarkable,\u201d Springer recalled, \u201cand astounding for a child.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aquarium fishing \u2014 a controversial practice in West Hawai\u02bbi<\/a> \u2014 was already off-limits there under a state law enacted prior to the Try Wait, Springer said, and will remain so after the moratorium\u2019s lifted.<\/p>\n During Try Wait, the fish biomass at the Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu Marine Reserve grew to more than double the levels found in similar areas in North Kona, according to Mary Donovan, a researcher at the Hawai\u02bbi Institute of Marine Biology.\u00a0That\u2019s based on nearly 1,500 dive surveys done at Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu and K\u016bki\u02bbo in the past 17 years, advocates said.<\/p>\n The moratorium, Donovan and others said, also had a spillover effect, where fish increased in areas next door.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fish have come back. The reefs feel alive again. And for those of us who grew up in these waters, that means everything,\u201d Big Island resident Kawika Ruddle said during a hearing in April on Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about numbers. It\u2019s about connection,\u201d Ruddle added. \u201cIt\u2019s about being able to pass something healthy and abundant on to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A Fragile Recovery\u2019<\/p>\n On Sept. 18, a volunteer with Makai Watch, a program that helps state authorities keep an eye on the coast for unlawful fishing, spotted three men picking \u02bbopihi at Kalaemano, an important cultural site in Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu, as a yellow-hulled boat waited just offshore.<\/p>\n Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement officers then tracked the boat along the coast from the shore for several hours until it arrived at Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor, according to state filings<\/a>. The officers found 4,068 \u02bbopihi on board. The snails had been on a boat deck for hours, but were still alive.<\/p>\n The officers handed the \u02bbopihi over to Hui Kahuwai and the group\u2019s volunteers, who worked into the night trying to reattach them to the rocks in the marine reserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n A majority of them, however, did not survive but Most said at least the nutrients they left behind benefited the shoreline ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s precisely the kind of event that shows us how fragile the recovery is that we\u2019ve been working on this past decade,\u201d Most told the Board of Land and Natural Resources on Friday. \u201cThe gains \u2026 can be wiped out when people who don\u2019t know or respect this place treat the resource like an ATM instead of the icebox that it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The board considered whether to levy more than $46,000 in fines divided evenly among the three men: Brandon Carvalho, Kaipo Botehlo-Matthey and Keaupililani Solomon-Lewis<\/p>\n Ashley Davis, a friend of Botehlo-Matthey, called in to the meeting to read a statement on the three men\u2019s behalf. They didn\u2019t realize they were in a marine reserve, Davis said, because no signs were visible from the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were gathering food for their families, Davis added, calling it an \u201chonest mistake.\u201d She asked the board to substantially reduce the fines or consider community service instead.<\/p>\n Other testifiers and at least one board member expressed disbelief that the men intended to use such a large quantity of \u02bbopihi for family consumption.<\/p>\n \u201cFour thousand, boys. That\u2019s a lot. And we should be better than that,\u201d board member Kaiwi Yoon said<\/a>. Yoon, who\u2019s Native Hawaiian, grew emotional after confirming the three men who took the \u02bbopihi were Hawaiian, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThese types of actions, boys, demonstrate our inability as a l\u0101hui (nation) to love and preserve and protect our fragile cultural resources,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m hurt because we fought all these years for you guys, this next generation, and to claim ignorance is not acceptable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe gains \u2026 can be wiped out when people who don\u2019t know or respect this place treat the resource like an ATM instead of the icebox that it is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rebecca Most, executive director of the nonprofit Hui Kahuwai<\/p>\n Most and others supported the fines, but the board unanimously voted to negotiate another type of settlement with the men after discussing the matter in private for about 30 minutes with the board\u2019s legal counsel.<\/p>\n It was not the first poaching incident at Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu either. A separate fish taking at the reserve had happened several months before, Most and Springer said. They expect the board to review that incident at an upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n Taking It Slow<\/p>\n Hui Kahuwai, along with longtime families in the area, has already spent several years working on appropriate catch limits and other rules with the state to keep the progress made at Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu from swiftly disappearing. Fishing in that area will require a free permit once the moratorium lifts.<\/p>\n Some proponents, including the nonprofit group\u2019s vice president, Kaikea Nakachi, are urging the division to proceed more cautiously and enact stricter limits. <\/p>\n A plan for the Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu Marine Reserve has already been revised three times since the first draft came out in 2023, according to Nakachi. Unfortunately, he added, each revision has rolled back restrictions that were proposed based on ancestral knowledge of how to best manage the marine resources there.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poached-opihi-768x1024.jpg\")
Rebecca Most worked to try and reattach some of the 4,000 \u02bbopihi that had been poached earlier that day. Few, if any, survived. (Courtesy: Kaikea Nakachi)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mike-Nakachi-\u02bbopihi-1024x683.jpg\")
Cultural practitioner Mike Nakachi, Kaikea Nakachi\u2019s father, transports poached \u02bbopihi back to the Ka\u02bb\u016bp\u016blehu coast after they were recovered from a poaching event earlier that day. (Courtesy: Kaikea Nakachi)<\/p>\n
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