In July of 2009, Congress (through NOAA’s Restoration Center) provided $3.4 million via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to The Nature Conservancy to address the threat of marine invasive species in Maunalua Bay on Oahu, Hawaii to stimulate the economy. The Nature Conservancy worked in collaboration with Mālama Maunalua and local business Pono Pacific to successfully scale up a community-based effort and take the first critical step in restoring a once-healthy and productive Bay.
The Maunalua Bay Reef Restoration Project, or “The Great Huki” Project had three distinct yet interdependent goals:
- To remove a significant section of the densest distribution areas of invasive alien algae in Maunalua Bay as a first, critical step toward ecological restoration of coral reef and seagrass beds;
- To create employment and stimulate emergent ‘blue-green’ enterprises on Oahu; and
- To build sufficient community capacity in the Bay that will result in expanded and sustained local reef management efforts. Each goal has an associated set of objectives.
By the numbers
- 23 acres
of reef ecosystem cleared of invasive alien algae - 75 jobs
created or retained - 4 million dollars
dedicated to addressing the threat of invasive alien algae in Maunalua Bay - 3 million pounds
of invasive alien algae removed - 100% of invasive algae composted
for five local farmers
- 3,000 community members
who volunteered - 12 schools engaged
to participate - 8 local businesses
engaged to participate - 7,000 total volunteer hours
by the community