Starting around 1200 AD, ancient Hawaiians created a system unique in the world: hybrid, cultivated-wild aquaculture using ponds to trap, raise, and harvest ocean fish.
Fishponds were fundamental to Hawaiian nutrition and culture. But that culture broke down by degrees during colonization and the US overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1893.
Ritte is a living legend in Hawai‘i’s native rights movement, known across Moloka‘i and beyond as “Uncle Walter.” He radiates an iron core of intensity and conviction that initially intimidates — until he flashes a sudden, crinkly smile so genuine that it brings the sun.
A 12-year study of He‘eia Fishpond correlated two periods of fish die-offs with these weather events. As climate change intensifies, these extremes could happen more often.
But most important, for fishpond activists, are the connections they have made through this work to an ancient culture stripped from Native Hawaiians over the past two centuries.