Fishpond Fun!

Loko Kuapa




What is the cultural significance of the loko kuapa?



It was used to get food (fish) for the Hawaiians to eat. The women had very little to do with this fish pond. They could only pick the limu(seaweed) or the algae. The men worked on this fishpond. The men built and harvested this pond. The Loko Kuapas were designed well, because they made the harvesting easy. The pond was made with an opening in the wall that held a gate. The openings in the gate were just big enough so that juvenile fish could enter. Then the Hawaiians would feed the fish a lot of food, and when the fish would try to leave the pond they were to fat to fit though the gate. These types of fishponds were found along the shoreline. They were part of the kai fishponds.


What types of species live in the Loko Kuapa?



Five of the Species that are in this fishpond are:


The Porphyra Algae-

Aholehole-

'Ama'ama-








Moi-

Papio-











Here is a food web of the species mentioned above:

What is the Loko Kuapa made of and how is it made?


The Loko Kuapa is literally translated as a walled pond, so it has a wall around the perimeter of the pond. The wall is made out of basalt, coral, and coraline algae that is used for cement. There is a makaha or gate that allows the small juvenile fish to get through but when they eat and grow they are too big to go through the gate back to the open ocean. The wall was built very level so that access to the makaha was very easy. The wall also allowed the water to circulate throughout the pond. The pond had sea water coming in through the gate and fresh water coming from a stream so that this brackish water was made. It took about three years to build this fishpond.


Here is a picture of a hand made model that we made of the Loko Kuapa: