Endangered Menehune Fishpond is a photograph by Jean Hall which was uploaded on October 17th, 2013.
Title
Endangered Menehune Fishpond
Artist
Jean Hall
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Spreading out before you is the Alekoko Menehune Fishpond, located near Lihue on the southeast coast of Kauai.
Legend has it that the Menehune, an ancient race of shy little people with amazing engineering skills -- built the 900-foot dam that separates the pond from the Huleia River in a single night, passing the lava rocks it contains from hand to hand in a human chain from mountains 25 miles away. It is estimated to be nearly 1,000 years old.
The fishpond has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973, and many people think it is one of the rarest and most significant cultural and archaeological sites on Kauai. When I visited in 2005, however, our guide told us the rock wall was overgrown with invasive mangrove, the pond was full of silt, and the private owners -- who rarely visited -- had put it up for sale.
That same year in a newspaper article, Don Heacock, an aquatic biologist who lived next door said, "I've taken pictures of it for the last 24 years...and it's getting smaller and smaller." He believed the fishpond should be restored and turned into a research and education center and concluded, "We just can't lose resources like Alekoko. They're too precious; they're too unique."
Uploaded
October 17th, 2013
