He'eia Fishpond

He'eia Fishpond

By Ashley Murakami

On Wednesday, we went to He'eia Fishpond. When we were there, we had to put on gloves and walk though a stream and it was all the way up to my knees! On the other side, there was a lot of mangrove trees, seedlings, and stalks. The older kids had to cut the stalks and our class had to pull out the seedlings. After we pulled out some mangrove, we went to the fishpond. We learned the ancient Hawaiian way of raising and catching fish. Their way to raise and catch fish was to have a special gate that has small square holes. There is another gate made of bamboo and the space between was small. The plankton that lives in brackish water floats in the holes and the little fish chase it and go through the holes into the fishpond. When the fish grow, they can't escape. A worker lifts up the gate and the fish gets stuck in the other gate and the worker grabs the fish that look good to eat. If the fish is really big, they throw it back into the ocean. They throw the biggest one because those make the most babies. I learned so much on this trip; it was so fun!