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Tide Pools at Ahihi-Kinau

Posted: October 23, 2007

I visited the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve on Maui to photograph a series of amazing  tide pools.  The pools are spectacular shades of blue, aqua, and teal—some of them are over 12 feet deep and support communities of coral, fishes, and invertibrates. 

Located next to Keoneoio (La Perouse Bay) in Makena, Ahihi-Kinau is a marine life conservation district.  Ahihi-Kinau was formed in the last eruption of Haleakala in 1790 and the landscape consists of sharp black aa lava rock. 

Tide Pools at Makena 

The tide pools are a series of interconnected pools in the black lava rock.  The pools are separated from the ocean by an outcrop of lava.  At high tide waves are able to wash over the outcrop into the pools.  But at low tide the pools are isolated from the sea sheltering many small fishes and invertibrates from predators.    

Here is a photo of a humuhumunukunukuapuaa (trigger fish) and a awa (mullet) in a coral pool.  There are only a handful of pools I have ever seen in the Hawaiian Islands with this amount of coral.  The tide pools at Ahihi-Kinau are an important nursery for coral, fishes, and a host of other sea creatures that live on Maui.    

Here is a shot a coral pool with Haleakala looming in the background and La Perouse Bay to the right.  If you look closely in the foreground you can see a school of small fishes swimming in a veritable garden of coral.