Kīpahulu on Maui is now officially home to Hawaiʻi’s third community-based subsistence fishing area.
After nearly 30 years of grassroots community planning and engagement in East Maui and across the islands, the rural community of Kīpahulu saw its CBSFA signed into law Friday.
The CBSFA designation is essentially a list of rules to better manage the coastal and marine resources in an area. The rules are determined by the traditional customary practices of the area.
Pekelo Lind, who comes from a long line of fishers and generational stewards of Kīpahulu, is hopeful about the CBSFA.
“Well, we have to take great pride, that’s our identity, that’s where we come from, you know? We learn from throughout generations, our kūpuna that passed down to each person, took them maybe 100 years to learn an area and experience the place and pass it down to us,” Lind said.
“And that’s why we got to hold that kind of things dearly. I am hopeful, I am. We can’t guarantee that they will follow the rules. But the CBSFA gives us another upper hand on better regulation.”
Kīpahulu’s CBSFA designation covers nearly 6 miles of coastline from Kālepa to Puaʻaluʻu Gulch, and extends makai to the 60-meter depth line.
Kīpahulu is the third community to establish a CBSFA behind Hāʻena on Kauaʻi and Miloliʻi on Hawaiʻi Island.
