Karanga Mai

Karanga Mai, Calling out all critters in the fishpond!

April 17

Today we spent the day with Megs welcoming all critters of the fishpond to enter our 3-D Quadrate of DOOM...nawwww. Just to have a look at them! We are continuing our investigation to see if G. salicronia is a home to little critters in the fishpond!

Waiting for the coast is clear, can't scare those critters away!

Megan and Cami

Oh what can we find?

"We are segmenting the algae :(" - Nikki

She's super pregos!

April 21

On this lovely Saturday we continued our venture with Megs catching critters in the fishpond!

We were a little out of luck only catching a few things.

We managed to catch some of these guys.

Koa, desperately looking for something to catch.

Instead, Daniel and Koa decided to do "jump fishing". They would jump off the fishpond walls to quickly catch mullet (I think)!

Aunty Donnie also came to see us today after our work day. She went over several chants with us. We went over E Ala E (Sunrise chant) and E Kānehoalani (another sunrise chant). We also went over I Kū Mau Mau and 'Uhola (thank you chant). And of course Nā 'Aumākua. During my session we only did E hō mai and E Ala E. I'm glad that we are learning more chants this session. It is always great to have different chants in your repertoire for any occasion that you may be a part of. 

Mahalo e na akua.

Mahalo e na kupuna la ea.

Mahalo me ke aloha la.

-Leila

Finding Nemo & Mr. Krabs

Tuesday, March 20

This past, past Tuesday we had a Megsie day and we made her second 3D quadrant. First off, we measured the pvc pipes and cut them down to size. Then we primed and glued all the pieces together to create a 3D box. Later, after it dried, which was fairly quickly, we began to wrap the netting around the edge of the box by using hot glue as well as zip ties to make sure that the edges are as tight as they can be. This step took a while because we wanted to make sure that the box was covered very well and tight. After the 3D quadrant was finished, we went out into the field. But this part was very tricky. We had to float to the point, one quadrant went to bare sediment and the other to gracilaria/algae canopies, there we had to swiftly put the quadrant down trapping all the little critters inside, Maryane and I completed this step as everyone else had to wait on the sidelines, and then bam everyone came in for the digging. Each net placed into the quadrant and scooped up could have been a complete surprise. It was exciting every single time watching people pull up all sorts of animals from the quadrant, which we then placed into buckets to ID and measure later. This was so interesting and it was so surprising and fun every time. Leila ended up pulling up a large lizard fish and Megan pulled up quite a large crab, although it was towards the end of the quadrant! Couldn't believe that we missed it in the first place! 

Zip tying and glueing down the netting for the quadrant

Floating on down in section 27 looking for the perfect spot.

3D Quadrant finished

Waiting on the sidelines

Little critters we found in the 3D Quadrants. A Mystery Brown Crab (Right) & A Mystery Shrimp (Left)

Saturday, March 24

Saturday was our second community service day, well technically it was our third. Today, we ended up having to move pohaku (rock), which is much heavier than ko'a (coral). As always we first gathered around the lawn and introduced ourselves. This time, my two younger brothers, Ka'io and Pu'ali came with me to join on the help and fun. Then we got ready and went on out little tour of the fishpond. This time, our tour guide was Paleke, the guardian of the fishpond lol. He was very interesting and told us many ancient stories and legends regarding the fishpond and its surroundings. I was completely intrigued. We then walked out, far past the break and around the cylinder smaller wall to start passing our first pile. Oh how heavy the rocks were! It was so tiring, but yet again we had to pass the same pile adding on another each time about 4 times. At the last pile, we counted how many rocks came through and there were 389! My gosh! We must be body builders after this. We pass rocks in the same way our Ancestors did which puts mana (power) into each rock and into the kuapa or the fishpond wall. I love community service days and giving back to the fishpond, which gives so much to me. Later, Aunty Donnie joined us and told many more stories about the fishpond, Haumea and Meheanu. These stories are so intriguing, and we also talked about Haumea moments that we may have had while working at the fishpond. Megsie had the most interesting one about her Haumea dream. Aunty Donnie is always a delight to have and she always talks to us about the most interesting dreams. 

Aunty Donnie telling us legendary stories of Haumea

Sharing a laugh with Aunty Donnie and all the LAIPERS

Chili & Rice for lunch after a long community service day. 

How to whip a fish

On Tuesday we had another great day with Hi'ilei.  First we learned about the Hawaiian Moon Calendar, which was, and still is, critically important to fishpond management.  The phases of the moon are called Po Mahina, and there are 30 days in the Hawaiian Moon calendar.  Hawaiians had a unique name for the moon on every day.  The 30 days were broken into 3 phases (anahulu) of 10 days each: the ho'onui (rising) moons, the poepoe (full) moons, and the emi (falling) moons.  We learned about the practices and kapu associated with each of the phases and we also learned a nifty song and clap dance that helps you remember the phases.  The song is called Kamali'i 'ike 'ole i ka helu po (the child that doesn't know the moon phases).

Kamali'i 'ike 'ole i ka helu po
Muku nei, muku ka malama
Hilo nei, kau ka Hoaka
'Eha Ku
'Eha 'Ole
Huna, Mohalu, Hua, Akua
Hoku, Mahealani, Kulu
'Ekolu La'au
'Ekolu 'Ole
'Ekolu Kaloa
Kane, Lono, Mauli, pau.

Here we are learning and practicing it.

This ain't square dancing!

Anu was a pro and lead the rest of us through it.

Next we learned about "whip fishing" from Hi'ilei.  The name comes from the fact that you whip the pole to cast the line into the water.  As you will see, this is not a traditional fishing practice, since you use a fiberglass fishing pole with a reel, but it is still very important element of modern fishpond management.  The folks at Paepae o He'eia use whip fishing or reel fishing to catch predatory fish in the pond (those that would eat the herbivorous fish they're trying to grow).  Twice a year Paepae gets help from the community in catching these predators at open community fishing days.  Check out the fun that was had by all.

First we have to untangle the lines...

Pointers from the master

Leila is getting the swing of it

Looks like Daniel has done this before

Is that a fish, or more limu?

Success!!!

Even the "older" generation participated!