History
Waihe'e Limu Restoration, or WLR, began in 2004 by Alyson Barrows who is also known in the community as Aunty Napua. Aunty Napua, an Oahu native, would spend summers with her grandmother Ruth Ah Nee taking trips to the ocean to gather. Grandma loved to pick limu and taught Aunty Napua as a keiki how to properly pick and identify limu and the importance of limu to the fish. She continued this practice when she married Dennis, a Maui boy, who loved to fish as well. Their relationship enabled Aunty Napua to grow her passion for limu.
When fishing grounds were no longer plentiful, her thoughts immediately turned towards her time with her grandmother and the impact of limu would have for the fish. Seeing signs of limu depletion as well, it was not a hard decision for her to organize restoration efforts to bring back the limu.
With the help of local fisherman and their generational knowledge, she was able to create awareness of limu through public outreach events and work with local schools to organized a huakai to the kai to share with them the knowledge she was given from her grandmother.
Today WLR is an LLC and still being organized and cared for by Aunty Napua and her ohana.
When fishing grounds were no longer plentiful, her thoughts immediately turned towards her time with her grandmother and the impact of limu would have for the fish. Seeing signs of limu depletion as well, it was not a hard decision for her to organize restoration efforts to bring back the limu.
With the help of local fisherman and their generational knowledge, she was able to create awareness of limu through public outreach events and work with local schools to organized a huakai to the kai to share with them the knowledge she was given from her grandmother.
Today WLR is an LLC and still being organized and cared for by Aunty Napua and her ohana.
Limu Photo Archive |
Ho'i Limu?
Based out of Waihe’e Maui, Waihe'e Limu Restoration is an educational program focused upon restoring native limu. We are small family organization who desire the revival of native Hawaiian limu to continue hawaiian cultural practices both in the mauka and makai areas of Na Wai Eha.
Volunteer with us!
You can catch WLR at any one of our sites on Fridays doing water quality monitoring, Monitoring limu growth, shoreline clean up and educational displays. If you want to help or just got some free time and want to come out and talk story contact us or click the link below so we can let you know where to catch us. We look forward to seeing you there!
Where we Work
We can be found anywhere from Kanaha to Kahakuloa monitoring makai for water quality. wind and water currents, limu growth and fish population. When we are mauka, we are monitoring the streams for water quality and quantity as well as what's growing and not growing mauka. We are mindful of the influences of residential and agricultural development and always look for ways to work together with our community to maintain our efforts to aloha aina.
