LIHU‘E — Not many people seem to know the location of the Weuweu-Kawai-iki Fishpond. Actually, it’s more than one pond, with separate names, and they look much different today than they did in the pre-contact and Monarchy days. They are
LIHU‘E — Not many people seem to know the location of the Weuweu-Kawai-iki Fishpond.
Actually, it’s more than one pond, with separate names, and they look much different today than they did in the pre-contact and Monarchy days.
They are the Coco Palms Resort fishponds, likely earlier known by separate names because they served separate purposes when Native Hawaiians used them to raise and fatten ocean fish for sustenance.
Today, tilapia are the main occupants of the fishponds.
These aren’t like Queen Debora Kapule’s fishponds, though they used to be.
Collectively, the fishponds are the most recent Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i additions to the State Register of Historic Places, significant not only because of their ancient uses but also because Elvis Presley took a famous canoe ride down them in the movie “Blue Hawai‘i,” according to the historic places registration form.
Historically, the fishponds fell under the categories of agriculture and subsistence, with the subcategory of fishing facility or site. Today, they are considered in the landscape category, in the pond subcategory, according to the registration form.
Kapule, the favored wife of King Kaumuali‘i and considered last queen of Kaua‘i, owned the fishponds after Queen Ka‘ahumanu, wife of King Kamehameha I, gave her the land for Kapule’s loyalty to the Monarchy during a failed 1824 rebellion on Kaua‘i, according to historical records and the fishponds’ nomination form descriptive narrative.
Kapule took up residence on the property in 1825, and the fishponds in 1846 were described as having different levels of saltiness designed to fatten up ocean fish for food, with the fish being moved from one pond to another of lessened saltiness as they grew larger, according to a U.S. visitor.
Researchers in the narrative description of the fishponds indicate they were likely used as fishponds long before Kapule took ownership, and over the years have undergone several renovations to reach their current conditions.
It is surmised that the northernmost remaining fishpond was once called “weuweu,” the Hawaiian word for “herbage,” likely because at one time it was so overgrown with weeds or limu that it couldn’t easily be recognized as a fishpond.
Similarly, the southern fishpond is referred to in historical documents as “Kaiwiki,” “Kaimiki,” “Kaumiki” and “Kawai‘iki,” most likely the latter, which when written as “Ka-wai-iki” means “the small stream” that references not necessarily the pond but the ‘auwai (irrigation ditch) leading to the nearby Wailua River.
The ‘auwai still runs from the Coco Palms property to the river.
The different names for what was once one huge pond might also be due to the fact that it was common practice to separate ponds to segregate growth stages of fish.
The areas of significance, according to the narrative description, include prehistoric, historic and aboriginal archaeology, with periods of significance from 1300 to 1961, and significant dates of 1825 to 1855 (when Kapule lived there) and 1961 (the release date of “Blue Hawai‘i”).
The ponds’ architects and builders are not known, according to the historic places registration form. The same form is used for national and state registers, said Dr. Ross W. Stephenson, architectural historian with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources State Historic Preservation Division.
Stephenson is considered the keeper of the State Register of Historic Places, and said a historic place might be historic simply because it is over 50 years old, or because a structure is the work of a master, or the place of an important event.
A 10-member historic review board meets quarterly to consider registration forms for historic sites in Hawai‘i, holds public hearings on applications, and votes on whether or not sites are sufficiently significant to warrant addition to the State Register of Historic Places, Stephenson said.
The review board also determines if a site is nationally significant, and if so submits the application for consideration on the Federal Register of Historic Places, done through the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service, he said.
The state process is a “community-driven nomination process,” he said.
“It’s been there an awful long time,” Stephenson said of the Coco Palms fishpond.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
