Hawaii Annexation. Image: University of Hawaii at Manoa Library.
Course Overview
Students from our Fall 2016 ESRM 462: Coastal and Marine Management at California State University Channel Islands were invited to enroll in UNIV 391: Hawaiian Costal Management to augment their traditional California-based curriculum with an intensive trip across the Big Island of Hawaii (after a quick stop in Honolulu) to explore many unique approaches to managing our coast which contrasts with our California experience. Building off of our investigations and relationships with farmers, business owners, fisheries managers, fishermen, park rangers, mariculture professionals, alternative energy engineers and practitioners of traditional Polynesian stewardship, we are exploring a range of management challenges and responses to those challenges along the Hawaiian coast. Examples include visiting the only Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Power Plant in the U.S., the largest nexus for deep/coldwater mariculture in the U.S., Volcano National Park’s award-winning invasive species management and visitor engagement program, organic coffee plantations and apiaries, Captain Cook State Park’s unique interpretation of both European colonization and indigenous Polynesian response to colonization via a park accessible only via water, management of emergent vector-borne diseases in the midst of an economy built upon rapid international travel, the only live Tuna Auction in the United States, and exploring wind power from traditional Polynesian and western stakeholder perspectives.
We traditionally explore these management issues in our annual ESRM 462: Coastal and Marine Management class, but have never attempted to visit such case studies first hand as we routinely do in California. Our five-day trip is centered on the Big Island of Hawaii, but includes an early morning visit to the Honolulu Tuna Auction during a stopover on our way to the Big Island, with
In addition to engaging with resource management professionals, students are conducting opinion polls assessing the Hawaiian public’s attitudes toward coastal management issues, paralleling the surveys ESRM 462 students have conducted annually in Southern California each fall for the past decade. Their survey results will be made available to the Hawaiian public and be presented at academic conference in November of 2016.
Learning Outcomes
Over the course of our time in Hawaii, students will:
- Explore and gain a deeper understanding of coastal and marine management efforts across the Islands of Hawaii.
- Compare and contrast management efforts in Hawaii to those in California.
- Document Hawaiian management efforts so that these efforts can be folded into to current and future California-based ESRM courses.
Initial Draft Schedule
Monday 17th: fly out of LAX, arrive in Honolulu, all nighter in Waikiki
Tuesday 18th: early morning Oahu Tuna Auction, fly to Big Island
Wednesday 19th: UofH Pacific Aquaculture Center, Kalapana Market & Lava
Thursday 20th: Volcanoes National Park
Friday 21st: NELHA (OTEC) in Kona, Pu’uhonua National Park
Saturday 22nd: Canoe Plant Community Garden
Sunday 23rd: Fly back to California
Monday 24th: back home…in time for Monday’s class!
Big Island Map
Image: Joe Heller
