Column: Now is best time to improve management of Hanauma Bay

For the past several months, Hanauma Bay has been closed to the public and given an opportunity to recover. During this time, preliminary studies showed that water quality had improved dramatically and marine life was thriving in the bay. Recently, state Department of Land and Natural Resources employees with the Division of Aquatic Resources took the opportunity to plant coral in the marine preserve.

The plan for reopening Hanauma Bay to the public is still murky. It will probably start with a smaller number of visitors due to COVID-19 safety needs. It would be a shame to allow Hanauma Bay to return to its pre-coronavirus state. We can protect the bay with better management, education and by instilling a sense of pride in this special place in our residents.

Whenever I visited the bay — usually with an out-of-state visitor, because I always felt it was overrun with tourists and it catered to them — I never understood why we had to waste time being herded to watch an educational video when this can easily be done online.

Why not have visitors watch the video online, take a quiz and make a reservation to visit the bay? Visitors can show up at their allotted time and not have to wait until there is a parking space to enter. The theater could be redesigned into restaurants or shops to generate income for preservation efforts. Let’s be proactive and use this time to improve our tourism infrastructure with protection and preservation in mind.

The modus operandi when people walked on coral was for lifeguards to call them out over the megaphone: “Get off the coral!” But we can show more aloha by having a couple of volunteers in the water who can get to such people and politely explain that walking on coral can damage it. Perhaps the docents who herded the people to the educational movie can be retrained to be coral guardians, particularly during low tide.

Just like we now have hand sanitizer stations everywhere we turn, Hanauma Bay should have coral- safe sunscreen stations for visitor use with educational signage.

When Hanauma Bay was closed during the pandemic, residents did not call for it to be opened so they could enjoy the bay without tourists. Most of us understand how important it is for the bay to rest. Now that tourism is slowly opening, maybe it’s time to consider Kamaaina Days or Kamaaina Time at Hanauma Bay. We thoroughly enjoyed our beaches and trails without tourists for several months but we never got to enjoy Hanauma Bay.

Opening the bay to residents only, before it is opened to tourists, would send the message that residents are valued. Locals would discover the joy of snorkeling in a pristine Hanauma Bay and feel a sense of ownership and pride, and we all know that people protect what they love.

In the future, let’s resolve to close Hanauma Bay whenever the scientists tell us that it needs to recover or that coral restoration is needed. There should be no hesitation to do this. If we take excellent care of the bay, coral restoration may not be needed.

In the pre-coronavirus era, we allowed tourism to rule our state. We were complacent and allowed fragile places like Hanauma Bay to degrade. If we don’t take care of our marine preserves, tourists will find other destinations with pristine waters, plenty of marine life and healthy corals. Let’s commit to taking care of our bays, beaches, trails and parks and make this a new dawn for tourism in Hawaii.

Shiyana Thenabadu is a photographer, community volunteer and former educator.