Big Island lawmakers are concerned about the collapse of the Pohoiki Boat Ramp entrance in the Puna district earlier this month. The area was inundated with lava back during the 2018 eruption, cutting off a lifeline for commercial fishers and tour operators.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources' Boating and Ocean Recreation Division had been hopeful that the dredging project would be ahead of schedule this summer. But recent high ocean swells collapsed the improvements and closed the channel once again.
A DLNR press release said that the decision to focus on restoring ocean access rather than constructing a new boat ramp at a different location stemmed from community meetings in 2019.
DLNR Chair Dawn Chang said the department, like the community, is terribly disappointed. The Conversation spoke to state Sen. Joy San Buenaventura on Friday morning about the setback in her district.
Interview highlights
On the collapse of the channel
JOY SAN BUENAVENTURA: Right before the storm surge filled it in, I spoke to a DLNR engineer, and they were super hopeful, because they were monitoring the surge and the current was actually pulling away sand. So they were super hopeful that it would actually stay the way it was. They did not take into account the storm surge, which filled it back in. So I am super, of course, heartbroken. On this same token, though, hopefully until we could get more monies to dredge it, the community can use that area as a safe swim area until we're able to get it reopened for the fishermen, because we also lost all of our swimming venues during the 2018 lava flow.
On the impact on the local fishing community
SAN BUENAVENTURA: I've been talking to the community since August 2018, which was when the lava flow ended and the fishermen came to me, and basically, they've lost their main avenues of financial support. The cost of driving all the way to Wailoa, as well as the cost of the fuel from Wailoa to get to the fishing grounds around this cape, Kumukahi, was super expensive, and it was cutting into their bottom line. And basically they were running into the red because they couldn't compete with other fishermen. … It is a community with long cultural roots that made it a priority for me and my successor, Greggor Ilagan, to open it up for the fishermen. And way back then, when the DLNR engineers were talking to me, and they said, ‘Well, we're not quite sure about the swale, of dredging it up.’ And this is before the alternatives came up; they said they would need to test it first. And so basically, the request of the fishermen was, let's just open it up, let's test it out, let's see what the current does. And I guess that's what it ended up, and it's a failed test. And we're hoping at the next budget we're able to get more. The reality is, if we had waited too long to get the right amount of money, it would have been a forever wait. … At least an effort was made, and hopefully we can cockroach some more money out of the budget this coming session, so we can actually open it up before we put in the retaining walls or the complete dredge, which would have been the most cost effective, highest likelihood of success, and so that hopefully we can open up next year for the fishermen to get in.
On possible community meetings
SAN BUENAVENTURA: Frankly, I want to wait until, to see how much money we've got in the budget, because next week, I'm going to have an informational briefing on my Human Services Committee to find out how much in the state budget we can afford to shore up SNAP for an entire state, because there's going to be a cliff coming in. I'm hoping we will likely have a community meeting to see whether or not they have other solutions, because, like I said, the best idea that came out of the biggest community meeting we had on Pohoiki actually came from the community, which was the complete dredge. Now it's just getting that money to finish up that complete dredge. … We were hopeful, but the worst-case scenario came through, which was basically what the engineers had expected if we only put in a narrow channel dredge, but we had to test it out, and that was the only money allocated in the budget for it.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 24, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
