‘Looking really good’: Engineer blown away by dredging progress at Pohoiki

When Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation engineer Finn McCall made a site visit Tuesday (June 24) to Pohoiki in the Big Island’s Puna District, he was astounded by the progress crews with contractor Goodfellow Bros. have made on the dredging project to reopen the boat ramp to the Pacific Ocean.

Particularly since the schedule allows crews 9 months — until next spring — for its completion; although, the contractor and officials initially estimated the $9.28 million project could be finished by November.

“I mean, I’m absolutely blown away,” McCall said in a state Department of Land and Natural Resources press release Thursday, adding he wasn’t expecting work to be as far along as it is already. “I’d say they’re about halfway done with the excavation portion of the project. So, it’s looking really good. Looking like we may be done ahead of schedule.”

It’s been a little more than 2 weeks since the dredging project began to reopen ocean access for the boat ramp that has been landlocked for the past more than 7 years since a lava flow from the 2018 Kīlauea eruption created a new black sand beach that cut it off from the Pacific.

Heavy equipment is scooping large buckets of volcanic debris from near the boat ramp to near the shoreline. Once the inner basin is cleared, a crane will arrive to create a 320-foot-wide entrance.

“There really wasn’t a channel before,” McCall added. “It was just an open bay, but the designated entrance, I think, was 40 feet.”

It’s the largest dredging job ever for the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation and involves the removal of 42,000 cubic yards of black sand, rocks and boulders deposited by the 2018 eruption.

That’s equivalent in size to 42,000 large refrigerators.

The boat ramp was critical to Puna area fishers. Since it’s been blocked, boats had to travel to and launch from Wailoa Small Boat Harbor, about 32 miles away in Hilo.

Making the trek was expensive and time consuming. Several small commercial fishing operations reportedly went out of business.

“This has been one of the highest-priority projects I’ve worked on,” McCall said. “The community is excited, and fishermen can’t wait to have the ramp and entrance restored.”

He describes the Pohoiki dredging as unprecedented.

Most dredging projects at state small boat harbors involve removing fine sediment and sand. The project at the Puna site requires a lot of heavy material being hauled away.

Most harbors also need to be dredged every 7 or 8 years. That aspect of the future for the Puna bay and boat ramp remains to be seen.

McCall said there’s no way to predict how quickly the new channel might fill back in and how soon it will need to be dredged again: “We’re just going to have to closely monitor it after the project is complete,” he added.

Many people also enjoyed the “hot pond” — which is not a hot pond or natural pond at all, but instead just water trapped by the new black sand beach created by the 2018 lava flow — that formed at the bottom of the blocked boat ramp.

However, the public is reminded that entering the project area to swim is strictly prohibited. It is an active construction area and closed 24/7.

The dredging project began June 10.

“Boy, this has been a long journey,” McCall said June 9 during a community celebration and blessing for the dredging project at the top of the Pohoiki boat ramp, which hundreds of people attended.

State Land Department Chairwoman Dawn Chang while the ramp was out of service received letter after letter, comment after comment from upset and frustrated Pohoiki fishers and their families, some of whom were forced to give up their generational livelihoods because it became too expensive.

Family members with lineal connections to the coastline were not able to fish, either.

“It’s crazy. It’s ridiculous. It’s unacceptable,” Aunty Ku‘ulei Cooper-Springer, who’s family of farmers and fishermen has called Pohoiki home for seven generations, said in August 2023 about how long the boat ramp situation has languished and the resulting consequences. “We are thankful it’s going to change.”

Chang during the June 9 celebration and blessing called the Pohoiki boat ramp a piko, a focal point, for the Puna community.

Every speaker also praised the community for not giving up and pushing to have the boat ramp restored.

The ocean is central to the way of life for the Puna community, it’s the culture. Cooper-Springer said fishing is as important to Hawaiians as kalo, or taro.

“Our land and our access to the ocean is valuable,” she said, adding that before the 2018 eruption cut the Pohoiki boat ramp off from the Pacific, “every weekend, there were families galore — fishermen, surfers, all of it.”

Pohoiki was and still is a gathering place because it is unlike any spot on the east side of the Big Island.

The wahi pana, or sacred place, stirs up childhood memories for many. It is special for fishing and also as a close-knit family gathering area.

Cooper-Springer said Pohoiki holds an indescribable mana, or power, and was a place where families would congregate, whether it was to exchange fruits, vegetables and their local catch or to simply enjoy each other’s company.

“This day makes me remember my dad,” state Department of Land and Natural Resources 1st Deputy Ryan Kanakaʻole said in a state press release following the June 9 dredging celebration and blessing. “Summertime for me was coming down here, making the 2-hour drive each way from Kaʻū with my father to dive, surf or just relax. … I’ll never forget those days spent at Pohoiki.”

Cooper-Springer and other Pohoiki community members were already working with Hawai‘i County officials in 2023 to make sure Isaac Hale Beach Park — adjacent to the soon-to-be-reopen boat ramp — is once again a family-oriented place, with stewardship programs in place to educate visitors and residents alike about what Pohoiki means to the community’s culture.

She hopes with the restoration of ocean access at Pohoiki, the community can return to those roots: “I believe that’s possible.”

News reporter Nathan Christophel contributed to this story.