Kahoʻolawe Factoids
The guests for our visitor paddles are often interested in learning more about this great place we live, including the somewhat mysterious island of Kahoʻolawe. Here are various factoids you might like to share or use to answer questions.
First, lets learn how to pronounce it correctly. It ha two o’s separated by an ʻokina (the 13th Hawaiian letter) just like hoʻokele; both get pronounced. Kah-hoʻo-lah-veh.
Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the 8 main islands. It’s 11 miles long, 6 miles at the widest spot, and is 45 square miles (just under 29,000 acres). It has 29 miles of shoreline. Kahoʻolawe gets very little rain, about 14” annually, as a result of being in the “shadow” of Mauna Haleakalā, which effectively blocks most the rain clouds.
In the late 1700s, British captain Vancouver gave Kahekili, the high chief of these islands, some cattle and goats, which were left on Kahoʻolawe. Over the next 200 years, the goats continued to multiply even amidst the bombing practice. As late as the 1980s, there were over 50,000 goats there. Most were finally corralled and shipped to Maui. The last were hunted.
Kahoʻolawe was continously occupied by small fishing villages and farmers from the earliest times until Dec. 1941 when the US Navy evicted all the residents to create a bombing range to train pilots. This continued thru WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and beyond.
As a result of the “Hawaiian Renaissance” triggered by the 1976 voyage of the Hōkūleʻa from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti without any modern navigational equipment, the Hawaiians decided they wanted Kahoʻolawe back. Thru a long series of protests, island occupations, and lawsuits by the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO), the bombing ended on Oct. 22,1990. The Navy returned Kahoʻolawe back to the state in 1993 and it is now administered by the state’s Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC).
No one lives on the island and it can never be commercially developed per the terms of the agreement. However, naturalists employed by the state stay there for extended periods (usually 6-weeks at a time). They manage the reclamation efforts and supervise the volunteer groups that come over to help with the plantings and erosion control.
Only about one-third of the island was used as a bombing range. Yes, there is still unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the island and in the water surrounding parts of the island. Consequently, there is a two-mile exclusion zone around the island. Although the US government promised to remove all the UXO, (surprise, surprise) they still have not. However, KIRC knows all the areas that have been cleared and markers indicate the areas that have not.
Individual volunteers and groups are taken over for 3.5 days of planting, erosion control, and other chores. They go over in the specially-built KIRC boat, stay in the old Navy barracks, and eat in a modern dining hall.
All the water needed for drinking, cooking, and bathing is made from ocean water processed in a reverse osmosis system powered by solar panels on the island.
In 1965, the Navy exploded a million pounds of TNT on the SW coast trying to reproduce the concussion of an atomic bomb. Measuring equipment was placed at various points inland and three old Navy ship were anchored at different distances from the shore. The concussion tipped over and sank the ship closest to the island. The blast also created a big hole named “sailor cap.” Over time, sea water seeped thru the porous lava rock and filled the hole. Contrary to the urban myth created by a popular internet video about Hawaiʻi a few years ago, the one fact it got incorrect was that the explosion “cracked” Kahoʻolawe’s water table. Not true! The island’s aquifer is still intact and located under the middle of the island.
When you look at Kahoʻolawe from Maui, you can see a hump just off-center on the skyline. That is Puʻu Moaʻulaʻiki (Little Red Chicken Hill), the second highpoint on the island. If you look to the left, you can see the highest spot, which is Puʻu Moaʻulanui at 1,445 ft.
You can learn more about Kahoʻolawe at the large, three-room exhibit inside the Maui Ocean Center.