Meet the Team
Comprised of community member volunteers, scientists, supporters, and partner groups, Hawaiʻi Wai Ola recognizes the value of a clean ocean for all of Hawai'i's residents, visitors, and natural resources.
Who We Are
Hawaiʻi Wai Ola is a group of water quality champions that is dedicated to measuring and sharing the status of Moku O Keawe’s ocean water. Comprised of community member volunteers, scientists, government and non-government organizations, Hawaiʻi Wai Ola recognizes the value of a clean ocean for all of Hawai'i's residents, visitors, and natural resources.
Through our work, Hawaiʻi Wai Ola offers Moku O Keawe a more comprehensive and timely understanding of its water quality, and thus, its quality of life.
Our Impact
Research shows that a main source of water pollution across the state of Hawaiʻi is stormwater that is contaminated with agricultural runoff, contributing to high levels of nutrients and sediments in the marine environment. Additionally, 88,000 cesspools across the state are releasing an estimated 53 million gallons of raw sewage into the groundwater every day.
Community-Based
We believe that for conservation to be durable, our interventions must align with the cultural and economic needs of our island community and that we can help empower local business to lead the effort.
Science-Backed
Despite recent declines in coral reef health, research shows that corals can adapt to changing conditions if damage from local threats are minimized. As such, we work to reduce local threats and create Adaptive Reefscapes that are healthy, diverse, and large.
Outcome-Driven
We focus our efforts on addressing the most pressing threats to coral reefs including damage from water and land-based pollution, overfishing, and unsustainable development.
Citizen Science Program
The Hawaiʻi Department of Health (DOH) is responsible for providing public health warnings for poor water quality that results from stormwater pollution or sewage pollution events. Due to limited resources, DOH can only monitor and report on a limited number of coastal sites. As such, there is an urgent need for widespread water quality monitoring and reporting of results to communities when pollution increases above safe levels. That’s where we come in. Our group regularly measures coastal waters for pollutants that can harm our coral reefs and human health. We compare our findings with these limits and are able to inform our communities and decision-makers when our ocean water needs our kōkua (help).
Citizen science provides a powerful and cost-effective solution to the lack of water quality data and can serve as a vehicle to increase public awareness.
Get Involved
Our work in Hawaiʻi focuses on improving Hawaiʻi Islands water quality, with an emphasis on preventing land-based pollution from entering the ocean. Pollutants from these sources threaten coral reefs, which are vulnerable ecosystems and critical for community resilience to extreme weather events, given their shoreline protection capabilities. Additionally, in the case of sewage, this pollution contributes to high bacterial and pathogen levels in the nearshore marine environment—a serious health hazard to locals, tourists, and coral health.
Volunteer opportunities
We work alongside communities to build effective management systems that reduce direct threats to coral reefs, thereby increasing the resilience of both the ecosystem and the people.
Make a Donation
We are currently seeking financial support to launch this program in three different locations: Hilo, Kohala (Puakō) and Kona. We invite you to join our efforts to launch the program by becoming a partner. Please contact us if you are interested in making a donation.