Farm to Fabled

Hualālai is helping to revive Hawaiian aquaculture and taking its cuisine to new heights.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANA EDMUNDS

Originally published: Hualālai Magazine

Winter/Spring 2020

Of the 38 storied loko i‘a, or Hawaiian fishponds, in various stages of restoration in the archipelago, the one named Waiakauhi is well known at the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai: It’s located right on the property. “Its excavation took over two years,” says David Chai, Hualālai’s director of natural resources. “A lot of work was done by hand, removing invasives like kiawe trees.” Chai, a marine biologist—he has a master’s degree in geography with emphasis on coastal ecology and aquatic resource management from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa—was asked in 1990 to conduct a biophysical survey of the land on which Hualālai now sits. “Part of the stipulation of building the resort,”says the Honolulu-born Chai, “was that we take care of the traditional ponds.”

These also included 11 anchialine ponds—bodies of water with connection to the sea underground, not on the surface. Given Chai’s specific expertise and local knowledge, he was asked in 1996, in conjunction with the opening of Hualālai, to stay on full-time. More than two decades later, he’s continuing to mālama i ka ‘āina, or care for and live in harmony with the land.

In ancient Hawai‘i, hundreds of thousands of people lived on the islands (the population today is 1.42 million), with 2,000-plus miles of ocean separating them from the nearest continent. Vast quantities of food were needed to sustain the large, isolated Polynesian community, and the culture demanded that the measures taken to feed its people be in harmony with nature. Waste and environmental harm angered the gods.

Loko i‘a helped fill the demand. In the 1700s, the islands’ many ponds likely produced some two million pounds of fish annually. Other cultures also practiced aquaculture at that time, but Hawai‘i’s loko i‘a were unique for their resiliency, sustainability, and simple sophistication. “As do others within the Hawaiian community of Ka‘ūpūlehu, I, too, want my grandkids to understand the ‘ono of this place,” says Chai, referring not only to the beauty of the region but also the deliciousness of the food it produces.

Keeping that understanding alive at Hualālai and beyond requires a team effort. Working with Chai are four additional marine biologists—Lauren Nakoa, Kelsey Makida, Nicole Tachibana, and Melissa van der Merwe—and facilities and maintenance specialist Chris Keeling. Together, the natural resources team is part of a growing movement in the islands to restore loko i‘a to their former glory and bring food sovereignty back to Hawai‘i (approximately 90 percent of the state’s food is currently imported).

Part of the team’s contribution is supplying Hualālai’s restaurants with seafood that has been cultivated on-site. Raised lava rock ponds—built in the 1990s and set among a garden of seasonal produce, including soursop and ‘ulu (breadfruit)—hold thousands of Pacific white shrimp. Two hundred of the shrimp are harvested weekly for Hualālai’s six restaurants.

Oysters are also part of the program. In 2003, Chai had a hands-on role in the digging of Punawai, a three-million-gallon pond intended to serve as both an aquaculture facility and a water feature for hole five of the resort’s Ke‘olu Golf Course. Two years later, the man-made pond won an award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its innovative environmental design. Water travels from two underground wells through hundreds of feet of lava fields, which naturally filter out bacteria. The water emerges pristine, creating an ideal environment for some 60,000 Kumamoto and Pacific oysters. The number fluctuates constantly, as 500 oysters are harvested weekly for the resort’s restaurants and new seed from a local hatchery is added twice yearly.

The natural resources team believes their oysters are the best-tasting bivalves around, and Hualālai’s executive sous chef James Ebreo agrees. “Everything is raised more naturally,” says Ebreo. “It makes the saltiness and cream of the oysters different. They don’t have real bite to them.” Also a fan is Kainalu, a 24-year-old spotted eagle ray living in King’s Pond, the resort’s 1.8-million-gallon “aquarium” where guests can snorkel among more than 4,000 tropical fish. “Sometimes we give [Kainalu] oysters from the pond,” says Makida, the team’s husbandry specialist. “It’s really good for him.”

Chai attributes the oysters’ popularity to what they eat. “We feed them good diatoms [microalgae]—the fatty-acid kind,” he says. And it’s not in the form of processed pellets. The team grows the algae they want right in the pond. In the wild, by contrast, oysters are at the mercy of what is floating by.

Although the resort’s historic Waiakauhi Pond is not used for farming oysters and shrimp, its preservation, together with the caretaking of other loko i‘a and loko i‘a–inspired ponds, represents an important step in the right direction—a step that promotes place-based fare. “It’s keeping our culture alive,” says chef Ebreo, who is part Hawaiian and was born and raised in Pa‘auilo on the island of Hawai‘i’s

northeast coast. Guests are welcome to get involved. All of the ponds at Hualālai can be visited solo throughout the day, or formal tours with Chai and his team can be arranged. The Hualālai Seafood Experience (808.325.8000) is another delicious option: Champagne in hand, guests enjoy an insider’s view of the ponds and are invited to catch their own oysters and shrimp—a bountiful harvest that the resort’s chefs will happily prepare as part of a personalized five-course dinner.