Maui's Artificial Reef expanded

[Shaka Doug]

Last week over 1,000 new concrete structures were added to the artificial reef just a short distance off the shore from Kihei's Keawakapu Beach. First reports I heard were that it was mostly a success but not as built up as they had envisioned it. Does anyone have any info about this? I will dive the area one of these days and check it out. The previous artifical reef which is somewhere near 40 years old) in the area has been very good at attracting fish and other marine life and having the wreck of the St Anthony out in the midst of it all makes for a pretty cool dive experience.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

First I heard about it was this picture and caption in yesterday's paper;

Beefing up the reef - Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor's Information - The Maui News

Here is a follow up story today;

Blocks dropped off Keawakapu fall on, damage live coral - Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor's Information - The Maui News

 

[KrisB]

Don Domingo was captaining the Maui Diamond as a safety vessel -- he posted about it on the Maui Dreams blog:
A Day in the Life of...: New Reef at Keawakapu

 

[DiveWestOahu]

ahhhh mystery solved,,, now we know where all those tire A.R. ended up, they departed O'ahu many many years ago

 

[Shaka Doug]

OK folks, get ready for this. If you haven't seen what happened out there here's a video that was put up on YouTube 4 days ago. I am absolutely shocked and outraged by this and you probabaly will be too. I can't believe there is not more discussion on this in our local news!!

Watch this video and ask yourself "Who, What, Why, and How did this happen??" We know When and Where!! This is a disgrace on our reef system and was entirely 100% preventable!!! What kind of idiots were in charge that day? Who allowed the second and subsequent blocks to hit reef? It's not like they did a little accidental damage...they piled these things right on top of the living reef!!!! The idea was to build up and area that was nothing but sandy bottom!! The water is certainly clear enough that anyone with a mask could have looked over the side of the boat and seen what was below them. This kind of ignorance is pathetic and there should be some people held accountable for this. It may be a good idea to go into the salvage business and move these things off the reef now while everything is still fresh and get this reef on it's way back to repairing itself.

It makes me cringe when I look at the battles I've had with the county where they try to blame us for damaging coral on our dives. I have done so much to clean up our reefs and now this... Unbelievable!!!



Previous damages to Maui corals have been assessed at $1,000 per coral colony. One boat that sank recently was threatened with fines over $600,000! I can't even imagine what the bill for this will be!!!! No matter how you look at this, it was a major screw-up!!

 

[KrisB]

Hey Doug... I hear you.

I resisted posting that video, too... because it seems to come from "unnamed sources" -- and I couldn't verify that it was, indeed, the coral damage that was referred to by the DLNR in the most recent project.

Do you know of anyone that's personally been out to see this and can verify it was at Keawakapu?

 

[Shaka Doug]

Kris, I know the poster of the video is unnamed. I tried to figure out who posted it too. Someone told me about it today and I can't believe my eyes. However, I don't think there is any question as to the authenticity of the location and what it shows. We know they dropped hundreds of these Z blocks in the area where there were none before. Where else in Hawaii is there an alternative possibilty? Maybe this guy will put together a better video as this one is titled 'Raw Footage' and he will give more details. I hope so. And I hope some of you readers speak out about this disgraceful act. I havent seen much in the papers but I'm sure there is more to come.

How much of our tax money went into this project?? Should draw a few 'Attaboy(s)'!!!

 

[CaptFlyingDutchman]

Here is Z-blocks off Oahu

YouTube - State Creates Artificial Reef Off Kahala

 

[princessaprilia]

That is a heartbreaking video.

 

[KrisB]

Kris, I know the poster of the video is unnamed. I tried to figure out who posted it too. Someone told me about it today and I can't believe my eyes. However, I don't think there is any question as to the authenticity of the location and what it shows. We know they dropped hundreds of these Z blocks in the area where there were none before. Where else in Hawaii is there an alternative possibilty? Maybe this guy will put together a better video as this one is titled 'Raw Footage' and he will give more details. I hope so. And I hope some of you readers speak out about this disgraceful act. I havent seen much in the papers but I'm sure there is more to come.

How much of our tax money went into this project?? Should draw a few 'Attaboy(s)'!!!

I hear you, Doug... but I've seen the Z-blocks off Oahu, too... and not that I've seen a pile like this... but they're there.

My concern is that perhaps it isn't even in Hawaii... where else have Z-blocks been deployed (worldwide)? Could the video have come from there?

How is it that they managed to drift THAT FAR so as to drop them on a living reef? I thought that whole area was pretty much artificial reef, sand and halimeda?

I've seen it elsewhere, and did repost it on FB for others to see... but I'm not 100% confident in making public assertions until someone has verified it (and will put their name on it).