Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 7, 1 July 2004 — NAVIGATING CHANGE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NAVIGATING CHANGE

Hōkūle^a completes historic voyage to the Northwestern "kūpuna" islands

Story by Sterling Kini Wong Photos by Monte Costa

Having already navigated more than 100,000 miles throughout the Pacific Oeean, reaching landfall in all the corners of the Polynesian Triangle and providing a spark for the Hawaiian renaissance movement, Hōkūle'a - the revered, 62-foot double-hulled eanoe - set out this spring to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a new

mission: environmental education. The voyage is believed to be the first to the Northwestern Islands by a Hawaiian sailing eanoe in many centuries. For 28 days in May and June, Hōkūle 'a explored the remote "kūpuna" islands, whieh stretch 1,200 miles northwest from Kaua'i. The expedition, called "Navigating Change" - a partnership between the Polynesian Voyaging Society and a variety of private organizations and state and federal agencies - sought to raise awareness of the environmental decline of the major islands by comparing their conditions with that of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. "No longer do we seek only the knowledge

of how to voyage between the islands,"

master Hawaiian navigator See HŌKŪLE'A on page 9

[?]

HŌkŪLE'A from page 1 Nainoa Thompson said before the journey. "We seek lessons to carry home to our children - ways to inspire the present generation to love and preserve our Earth as a sanctuary for those who will inherit il." After weather delayed the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands voyage for over two weeks, the eanoe finally set sail from Hanalei Bay on May 23, poised to educate over 1,600 students in 60 Hawai'i classrooms via satellite phone about the fragile environments of the kūpuna islands and the numerous species that live there. The vast Northwestern Hawaiian Islands coral reef ecosystem eneompasses 131,800 square miles and accounts for more than 69 percent of all the coral reefs in the U.S. Comprised of ten islands and atolls, the region is home to more than 7,000 species of birds, fishes, invertebrates, marine mammals and sea turtles, a quarter of whieh are found nowhere else in the world. The voyage also represented a eoming of age for 25-year-old Ka'iulani Murphy, who assumed the role of navigator for the first time on a longdistance trip. Bruce Blankenfeld and Thompson, the two experienced traditional navigators on the voyage, served mainly as support for Murphy. Within the first four days of the voyage, Murphy passed her first two navigational tests by finding, without the use of modern navigational instruments, Nihoa, a 171-acre, 900-foot-high island about 25 miles northwest of Ni'ihau, and Mokumanamana, a 46acre island about 155 miles northwest of Nihoa. Archaeology suggests that

Hawaiians visited these two islands frequently, and Nihoa was home to more than 175 people from 1000-1700 A.D. More than 135 cultural sites are found on the two islands, and two birds are endemic to Nihoa - the Nihoa millerbird and Nihoa finch. On May 27, the eanoe reached Tern, Island, an atoll with a long crescentshaped reef and numerous sandy islets. It is believed that that more than 90 percent of all Hawaiian green sea turtles travel to Tern to nest. On May 29, the crew had a scare when Thompson was thrown by a swell into a wooden rail and suffered what Hōkūle'a's crew doctor Cherie Shehata diagnosed as either a severe bruise or a fractured rib. Emergency procedures were initiated, but it was decided after Thompson's symptoms did not worsen that he should finish the voyage to Midway. The eanoe made good time, and on June 1 reached Laysan, an island covered at one time with sandalwood trees and native birds. Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to restore the island, whose vegetation was decimated by humans and rabbits, with native plants. The service is also protecting two native bird species on the island: the Laysan duck and Laysan finch. Hōkūle'a's crew of 13 helped gather a native sedge called makaloa to replant at Midway and to remove some of the marine debris whieh regularly washes up on the island. One crewmember described the piles of net on the heaeh as being as "big as a bus." On June 8, Hōkūle'a reached Kure, the oldest island in the Hawaiian ehain, bringing the journey northward to a close. Pushing through the

fiercest squall of the voyage, the eanoe then returned to the former military outpost of Midway, where a fresh crew boarded to return the boat to Kaua'i, landing in Hanalei on June 21. Organizers say Hōkūle'a's mission is now to take the knowledge it has gained from its voyage to the kūpuna islands and to spread it to the keiki of the main islands, encouraging them to better manage their environments at home. "We are targeting our message to the youth of Hawai'i because the future is in their hands," said a statement on the Voyaging Society's website. ■

A young albatross rests atop a pile of netting on Midway. Hazardous marine debris like this is one of the many environmental problems faced by the Northwestem Hawaiian lslands.