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Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge on Maui has a unique brackish-water wetland that varies seasonally and provides critical habitat to endangered Hawaiian water birds and migratory birds.
The refuge office, located in an old aquaculture facility at Milepost 6 on the Mokulele Highway (Hwy. 311), is about one mile north of the town of Kihei.
Kealia Pond abuts Maalaea Bay along the south central coast of the island of Maui. It averages one to two feet of brackish water covering 50 to 400 acres, depending on the season.
In summer, the pond often shrinks to less than half its winter size, leaving a crust of pure crystalline salt at its margins. In the past, Hawaiians gathered salt here; Kealia (pronounced keh-AH-lee-ah) means salt-encrusted place.
Intermittent flooding and siltation created shallow mud flat areas, pickleweed flats, native sedge margins and expanses of open water that provide suitable resting, feeding and nesting habitat for endangered waterbirds.
The drying of the pond each spring benefits native birds. The Hawaiian stilt (ae'o) time their nesting so that their young can probe for invertebrates and small fish in the newly-exposed mud.
Hawaiian stilt, Hawaiian coot and black-crowned night heron are the most common native waterbirds.
During the December to August nesting season of the Hawaiian coot and stilt, access may be limited to prevent disturbance to nesting birds and their young.
Fall and winter provide the best bird viewing and visitors may walk cleared paths along the levees of the old aquaculture facility to reach the main body of Kealia Pond. A wheelchair-accessible boardwalk and kiosk have been built along the coastal dunes and refuge wetlands.
Kealia Pond teems with introduced tilapia and minnows. Native fish such as 'awa (milkfish) and 'ama'ama (mullet) are also found.
The extremely rare hawksbill sea turtle nests on the adjacent beach, and generally emerge only at night.
A 2,200-foot elevated boardwalk, which is wheelchair-accessible, has been built along the coastal dunes and refuge wetlands and provides excellent opportunities to view humpback whales, which calve in the near-shore waters of Maalaea Bay.
Viewing scopes are planned at this site to allow visitors to watch whales and turtles in the ocean and water birds in the wetlands.
Outdoor Activities |
