Twelve miles south of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, the brilliant blue water of Kealakekua Bay is popular with visitors who want to snorkel among its marine life and learn Hawaiian history. Visually striking, a soaring cliff face embraces the bay, which saw British explorer Captain James Cook’s last voyage and violent death in 1779.
However, that historic moment in time is but one of the controversies circling Kealakekua Bay.
The island’s largest bay is part of Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park, which also includes Napoopoo Beach; Kaawaloa, a historic fishing village; and Hikiau Heiau, an ancient place of worship still used for ceremonies today. About 115,000 people visit the approximately 537-acre park annually, according to the most recent study from 2007. Most arrive by boat to snorkel and view the Captain Cook monument, a white obelisk constructed in 1874 near the spot where he was killed. Others hike down a steep trail.
Similar to Hanauma Bay on Oahu, Kealakekua Bay is a Marine Life Conservation District, protecting the historically significant and ecologically delicate area. Still, some visitors disregard its fragile ecosystem and cultural sites, treating them like a theme park, even as locals and marine life continue to call Kealakekua home.
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Hikiau Heiau is an ancient Hawaiian temple on the shoreline of Kealakekua Bay.
©fitopardo/Getty ImagesSome visitors have demonstrated problematic behavior: walking on protected coral while snorkeling or swimming, bothering protected species, littering or entering the sacred heiau. In one egregious example, a Maui man chased an adolescent humpback whale and dolphins there in 2023; he was later cited for wildlife harassment.
For residents, one of the biggest concerns is visitors trampling the fragile and living reef, Frank Carpenter, the co-owner of Kealakekua Bay tour company Kona Boys, told SFGATE. Kealakekua Bay’s delicate coral reef is home to myriad species of marine life and serves as shelter, feeding and spawning grounds for rare tropical fish, along with other aquatic creatures. According to a Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology study, many reef fish make Kealakekua Bay their permanent home.
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To protect marine life, companies like Kona Boys — one of only a few companies authorized by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to lead tours and rent kayaks in the bay — begin by educating visitors. A Kona Boys tour starts with a talk on Kealakekua’s history, deep cultural roots and ecological awareness, including not standing on living coral.
“It’s not only historically significant, it’s a sacred spot, so it’s really important that you enter it with respect and that you’re coming in there with the right intent and you’re educating the people you’re taking, not only on the marine life and the ecological aspects but also on the cultural aspects,” Carpenter said. “In my opinion, it’s critical that people go with authorized, reputable guides. It’s unfortunate, but some operators are just in it for the money.”
The white obelisk monument at Kealakekua Bay was constructed in 1874 near the place where British explorer Captain James Cook was killed.
imageBROKER/Thomas Lammeyer/Getty Images/imageBROKER RFLocals often step in to help educate visitors, with varying degrees of success. Carpenter, a resident of Kealakekua Bay who also serves on the board of several conservation-focused nonprofits, explained some people are receptive to correction when a local lets them know that coral is a living organism that can be easily damaged when walked upon. Those visitors may apologize, but others are defensive and uncaring.
“It’s really difficult because the way things are right now, there’s not really any enforcement down there because the state doesn’t have enough staff to be down there monitoring it, and it puts us in a really delicate situation because we want to educate people, but a lot of people down there aren’t open to that,” Carpenter said.
Having visitors understand that coral is a living, symbiotic organism is vital to the bay’s ongoing health.
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“I feel so privileged every time I come into that bay to be working in a place of such historical, cultural and biological significance. It’s an incredibly special place,” Julia Rose, the coral restoration program manager for the Nature Conservancy, told SFGATE. “Having some level of reverence when you’re in that space … the corals on the reef, some of those corals were probably there when Captain Cook was there.”
About 115,000 people visit Kealakekua Bay every year. The majority of them come by boat to snorkel in its waters.
Hotaik Sung/Getty Images/iStockphotoIn 2020, the Hawaii Tourism Authority released its current Destination Management Action Plan (DMAP) for the island of Hawaii and invited community voices such as Conservation International Hawaii Senior Program Manager Ulu Ching into the planning process. The tourism authority’s DMAPs are, as Ching told SFGATE, a “literal road map for how to care for an area.”
Ching said that like many others in Hawaii, she has “a love-hate relationship with tourism,” pointing out that while tourism “can be something of a blessing in terms of being an economic driver,” there was also “the extractive nature of tourism, the painting over of really important native narratives of the places where tourism is integral to economy.”
“It has opened up Hawaii to the world in a way that we — the people of Hawaii — haven’t had control or input into how we’ve been opened up,” she said. For more than 100 years, she added, the tourism industry has been economically dominant in Hawaii, and the residents and Native Hawaiian people want the industry to prioritize their stories, people and places over monetary boons.
Shifting to more regenerative tourism is critical for places such as Kealakekua Bay. February 2024 saw the first coral restoration project there, dubbed Kanu Koa, and the community took part in the regeneration of the life form considered sacred in Hawaiian culture for being among the planet’s first.
On that day in February, Rose and other divers harvested and rescued coral bits that had broken off with little chance of survival. They were then brought to the surface and passed down a line of community members in attendance. Using marine epoxy, divers fastened the pieces to living coral of the same species over 10-by-10-meter lots. When pieces are given a firm foothold on something else, the regeneration of the coral can be successful.
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Walking on the coral is only one type of disrespectful behavior seen from visitors to Kealakekua Bay. By involving community stewards, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources hopes to promote better understanding among visitors.
A generational Kealakekua Bay resident, Shane Akoni Nelsen can trace his lineage in the bay back 500 years. He explains that his ancestors welcomed people from across the globe for centuries, which is part of Kealakekua Bay’s historic significance. He fished as a child, with his community subsisting on fare from the ocean, working together to malama (care for) the land and water. Then, the fish they caught for food began to taste like the sunscreen that coated most visitors entering the water, given the burgeoning tourism industry.
Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park is an approximately 537-acre park, which includes the 315-acre bay along with Napoopoo Beach, Kaawaloa and Hikiau Heiau.
RASimon/Getty Images/iStockphotoNelsen leads the community stewardship nonprofit Hoala Kealakekua Nui. He said that the vision for the organization is to “ … restore balance that’s relevant for us today, for the Native peoples that still live down there and struggle to live there today, and to still have the visitor piece.”
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“My entire life, about three or four generations, we have been disconnected from stewarding our place because of the MLCD and for the purpose of engaging tourism in the bay because of its historical significance and its pristine marine waters,” said Nelsen, “but [eventually] the lineal descendants were no longer able to provide subsistence … not just in certain areas, but also because of impacts from the tourism industry.”
Hoala Kealakekua Nui operates under an agreement with DLNR to help steward the land and its resources. Nelsen and his team partnered with the Nature Conservancy to create a multifaceted Community Action Plan that was released in 2022 to help the area’s natural resources thrive again.
The plan stated that the bay’s top threat was people acting disrespectful toward residents and the bay’s natural and cultural resources. It also said people are trespassing and overpromoting the bay through social media, which contributes to overcrowding. Coral restoration was deemed a critical action item by all involved.
For generational residents like Nelsen, there is a reverence for the area, which remains a final resting place for their ancestors and a ceremonial space where traditions are still honored. Nelsen and his team wanted to integrate traditional knowledge and practices into the tourism industry along with DLNR’s recently approved Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park master plan. It calls for incorporating Hawaiian cultural practices and values into its strategies; adding interpretive programs to promote visitor “understanding, awareness, appreciation, and respect for the significant historic, cultural and natural resources of Kealakekua;” and including local knowledge and stewardship in its management.
“It’s important because if you don’t recognize the Native peoples, their culture and their subsistence, then it’s not part of the management. It’s not included in the vision,” Nelsen states. “We’re still well and alive, we’re not historical and preserved, we’re still there struggling to exist.”
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Editor’s note: SFGATE recognizes the importance of diacritical marks in the Hawaiian language. We are unable to use them due to the limitations of our publishing platform.
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Most visitors think Oahu’s North Shore stops at Haleiwa because that is where traffic builds to pandemonium, where beach parking fills earlier than you can imagine, and where sitting in your car between the familiar lineup of surf breaks and food trucks largely defines the experience. Once people have crawled through and found a place to stand at Waimea or Sunset, the mental box gets checked, and the car points back toward Honolulu fast, as if everything worth seeing has already been seen. But it hasn’t.
Instead of turning around at Haleiwa, we continued west on Farrington Highway and watched the storefronts fall away in the rearview mirror. The line of rental cars thinned fast as the road narrowed and the mountains got closer to the pavement. On the ocean side, long stretches of sand opened up, and within a few miles, we were seeing more wind in the ironwood trees than cars on the road or people on the beach.
Most visitors leaving Haleiwa head east toward Sunset Beach and Pipeline, where traffic stacks up endlessly and parking lots overflow. We went the other way. Out toward Mokuleia, the commercial North Shore disappears fast, and what replaces it is space. There are no visitors circling for stalls and no steady lines at food trucks. You can pull over without searching for the one open spot in a packed lot, and entire sections of beach sit quietly without the usual cluster.
One of the first landmarks after Mokule’ia Beach (which we will write about soon) is what most people still call Dillingham Airfield, though its official name is Kawaihapai Airfield. It is owned by the U.S. Army and managed by the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation under a 50-year lease, and it has been operated as a military installation since the 1920s, with HDOT taking over management in 1962. HDOT leases 272 acres of the 650-acre Dillingham Military Reservation and operates the single 9,000-foot runway, with the civilian side used heavily for gliders and skydiving while the Army retains first priority for air/land operations and uses the field for helicopter night-vision training.
As we drove past, it did not feel like a visitor attraction at all, even though you can spot the roadside signs for glider rides and skydiving. A small single-engine plane rolled down the runway and lifted off against the Waianae Mountains, then a glider followed, towed upward before separating and moving almost silently above the coastline. It is one of those North Shore scenes that makes you slow down without thinking about it, because it looks like real working Oahu rather than the marketed version, with runway, mountains, and open water all in the same frame and very few people around to make it feel like a production.
Close to the airfield are two oceanfront camps that rarely enter any typical Oahu visitor’s plans. The first is Camp Mokuleia, which sits along the shoreline and is owned by the Episcopal Church. If you’re not on a retreat, you can rent a campsite or tentalo on the beach. A little farther west is YMCA Camp Erdman, which opened in 1926 and is approaching its 100th anniversary, still renting oceanfront cabins and yurts to the public.
The accommodations are straightforward, with sand steps away from the doors and long views of the horizon. This is not a resort strip, and you won’t find any valet stands or infinity pools. Families gather around grills, kids move freely between cabins and the beach, while the ocean feels part of the daily backdrop more than it is an Instagram photo opportunity.
Camp Mokuleia tentalos start at $100 a night. Camp Erdman yurts and cabins range from $250-$450 per night for up to 6 guests. For context, the average vacation rental in the Mokuleia area lists above $500 a night.
The shoreline here is not known for calm, protected swimming, and currents can be strong without lifeguard towers stationed every few hundred yards. The beach also has a lot of coral, which keeps swimmers more limited than some other beaches. And that fact alone keeps casual beach traffic lighter, and it helps explain why this stretch feels so different from busier Oahu North Shore stops. The camps and the character of the water belong to the same landscape, shaped more by geography than by commercial branding.
Eventually, Farrington Highway reaches a gravel lot where the pavement stops and a locked gate marks the entrance to the Mokuleia section of Kaena Point State Park. There is no visitor center funneling people through an entrance plaza. Instead, there is open sky, steady trade winds, and a handful of parked cars facing a dirt road that continues on foot toward the westernmost tip of Oahu, where you can meet the road that comes from the other side. This is truly a part of Oahu that most visitors never see.
Hikers follow the old railroad route for roughly 2.7 miles to Kaena Point itself, where seabirds nest behind protective fencing and monk seals are sometimes seen along the shore. The trail is exposed, hot, and largely flat, with no services and little shade, which naturally limits casual foot traffic. Consider not trying it in the middle of the day. But, standing at the end of the paved road, with the Waianae Mountains behind you and nothing but raw coastline ahead, feels less like arriving at any Oahu attraction and more like standing at the literal end of the island.
What stood out most was how little competition there was for space. There were only a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and long portions of the beach were untouched compared with the chaotic churn nearby at Haleiwa. It was a bit windy, the mountains anchored one side of the horizon, and the coastline extended westward without any indication that you were sharing it with scattered other people.
If you have been to the North Shore more than once and believe you have already seen it, have you ever kept driving past Haleiwa until the pavement runs out? It’s worth the drive.
Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii at Kaena Point State Park, Oahu.
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Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 69 near the shore to 45 to 52 near 5000 feet. Light winds. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs 81 to 86 near the shore to around 67 near 5000 feet. Light winds becoming west up to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 69 near the shore to 44 to 51 near 5000 feet. Northwest winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light.
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 71 near the shore to around 51 near 5000 feet. Northeast winds up to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Highs around 83 near the shore to around 64 near 5000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Lows around 70 near the shore to around 50 near 5000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Tonight: Cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 48 to 54 above 4000 feet. Light winds.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs around 83 near the shore to 65 to 71 above 4000 feet. Light winds becoming northwest up to 15 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 47 to 54 above 4000 feet. North winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight.
The cold front has dissipated into a trough and remains northwest of the Hawaiian Islands this evening. High pressure will build in from the north and allow the trade winds to strengthen from Monday through Wednesday. Brief passing showers will favor windward and mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours through Wednesday and then over southeastern slopes and island interior sections from Thursday onward. Winds will weaken and veer slightly from a more east-southeast direction from Thursday on into the weekend. Shower activity will remain limited during this time period.
The large band of high level cirrus clouds and mid level alto stratus clouds currently over the islands will continue to slowly diminish through Monday. The cold front approaching the islands has stalled and diminished into a trough just northwest of the island of Kauai.
Trade winds blow into the region and strengthen into the moderate to locally breezy range from Monday through Wednesday. A slight decrease in wind speeds and a shift from a more east- southeast direction remains in the forecast from Thursday onward as another cold front approaches the islands from the northwest, weakening and lifting the ridge north of the state. Local scale sea breeze winds will develop along terrain sheltered slopes of each island as the large scale winds weaken. Limited shower activity will prevail into next weekend with only brief showers possible.
The afternoon forecast looks good. No evening updates.
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
Expectations for this afternoon remain on track. The boundary upstream of Kauai has made little to no forward progress today, sea breezes have struggled to establish owing to abundant high clouds, and showers southwest of Kauai and Oahu have essentially remained in place while stratiform elements peel off to the northeast. In addition, regenerating showers over Windward Oahu have dissipated in response to backing low-level flow. All told, an uneventful, cloudy, and mostly dry day across the state. Going forward, building heights over the N Central Pacific will maintain strengthening, but progressive high pressure at the surface. This in turn ensures the return of trades tonight which then become breezy during mid-week. Winds diminish slightly by late week as trades veer to ESE in advance of another round of upstream height falls. Typical trade wind weather anticipated throughout this time with showers focused windward and mauka. High clouds gradually clear from west to east Monday into Tuesday before exiting the area altogether by Wednesday.
A weakening stationary boundary will allow for abundant high clouds and relatively light land/sea breezes to prevail across most TAF sites. This front will also allow for disorganized showers across Kauai and Oahu tonight, however confidence was on the lower end based on weather model guidance, so made use of VCSH and PROB30 where rain chances were felt to be the highest. MVFR conditions may prevail under shower activity, otherwise VFR is expected across most sites for the period.
AIRMET Tango remains in effect across the islands due to upper- level turbulence from FL200-400 due to this front, with conditions expected to improve into tomorrow as this system continues to weaken. Patchy mountain obscuration may occur due to the presence of this front, however observations and webcams suggest that the threat is not widespread enough to warrant an AIRMET at this time. Light icing is also possible in cloud layer 120-180.
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
A dissipated front will linger into Monday just northwest of the area. Fresh to locally strong easterly trades will build in by Tuesday as surface ridge strengthens to the north. Winds will maintain strength but veer east southeast towards the end of the week as another system approaches from the west.
Surf along north and west-facing shores will be above seasonal average as a northwest swell (310 degrees) is expected to impact through Monday. Surf should remain small though the week with a small northwest bump expected next weekend.
Surf along exposed east-facing shores will be a bit elevated due to a short-to medium-period northeast (40 degrees) swell, then decline Tuesday. However, period and choppy conditions are expected to return by Tuesday as fresh trade winds redevelop and expand upstream of the state.
Surf along south-facing shores will remain near the seasonal average into March.
None.
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Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov
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