As students from Leih K. Elementary School gather in a classroom at Wai Anae High School, droplets of blood crimson algae dance in a bubbling beaker.
Teacher Tyson Arasato and recent Wai Anae graduate Hyrum Tom educate the visiting kids about the popular edible algae known as limu kohu, which is indigenous to Hawaii I. The school is attempting to cultivate algae in captivity to feed the community and aid in the recovery of the wild limu because the population is dwindling in the wild.
The school intends to move from beakers to huge tanks full of algae for the community to eat by the following year, according to Arasato.
Arasato stated, “We’ll let it restore outside in the wild instead of them having to go out and pick it, where it’s not found as much.” The aim of aquaculture is to genuinely provide people with the food they require.
As the state’s only high school aquaculture center, the Marine Science Learning Center has been growing in recent years to provide students with more practical experience raising and caring for species that many believe could be the backbone of Hawaii’s economy and food system.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the state’s aquaculture industry is predicted to grow from generating $90 million annually to $600 million annually over the next ten years. However, researchers warn that the industry will soon experience a labor shortage that must be resolved if it is to realize its full potential.
However, it’s a bit of a catch-22: few of the students who have attended the Wai Anae Center have found employment in the field, despite forecasts of future development and a dearth of workers.
Less than one-third of Wai Anae students seek college degrees after graduation, which contributes to the difficulty of many of the current positions. A greater problem is that there are now few jobs available for anyone with any level of experience.
According to Maria Haws, a professor of aquaculture at the University of Hawai i Hilo, the main obstacle is not that we are unable to provide worker training. It is that the industry needs to expand.
However, politicians have not yet responded to appeals from local industry executives and scholars to promote growth through regulatory change or infrastructural improvements, and the state has not made significant investments in the sector in recent years.
There are now worries about whether Hawai’i can truly realize its potential as a major aquaculture producer closes its doors on the Big Island and another sues the state for ruining its business.
The Marine Science Learning Center’s directors and students are building on decades of study despite the uncertainties.
As part of its eventual goal to increase food security in Leeward O’ahu and create a hatchery for native fish to reestablish throughout the state, the school is now using grant monies to expand its footprint with new tanks. Among these species is the native mullet, which is the namesake of the Wai anae.
In addition to helping children reconnect with their lineage and sense of home, reclaiming Mullet’s position on the Westside will increase food self-sufficiency and alleviate the region’s food insecurity, which is among the worst on Oahu.
Dana Hoppe, the coordinator of the learning center, stated that we must restore our fishponds to working condition. Do you wish to discuss food security? There you have it: food security.
Addressing Industry Challenges
Aquaculture is the most promising agricultural sector in Hawaii, according to industry leaders. This assertion is consistent with global trends that indicate an acceleration in the production and demand for farmed fish and other marine species.
According to a 2024 state assessment, Hawai I has a significant role to play in the aquaculture sectors in the United States and around the world, but the state must overcome certain challenges before that can occur.
To attract entrepreneurs and promote more private and public investments in the industry, the state must streamline regulations in addition to creating a pipeline of skilled workers.
According to the evaluation, which was carried out by a global aquaculture consulting firm that the state had engaged, the state must increase its investments in land and processing facilities as well as other infrastructure to support that growth.
But almost all of the aquaculture companies questioned mentioned that the labor was a major problem. Both attracting out-of-state talent and locating qualified applicants within the state proved to be challenging.
According to the assessment, the state’s aquaculture prognosis would only worse if the obvious personnel shortage was not addressed.
But according to Sen. Glenn Wakai, a longstanding advocate for aquaculture in the Legislature, the state has not yet demonstrated significant support for the sector and workforce development.
According to Wakai, the business has the potential to reach $600 million annually by 2034, thus it will take two simultaneous endeavors to guarantee that there are opportunities for recent graduates. One concept is to create areas similar to agricultural parks for aspiring aquaculture entrepreneurs and companies, while also luring well-established companies to carry out research in the state.
However, the model for such an endeavor Tenants at Kona’s Hawai i Oceanic Science and Technology Park are suing the state for water quality damages after the park’s water supply has been problematic.
Graduates and the workforce will have nowhere to go but outside of Hawaii without the park, or something similar, Waikai stated.
Bravo to Wai Anae, remarked Wakai. But what kinds of jobs will be available to the youngsters when they all want to attend college?
Teaching Rigorous Skills
A consignment of bright and speckled tilapia was just picked up by Hoppe and learning center staff, including previous students, for a senior capstone project.
In order to better understand how water salinity influences flavor, students will continue to grow tilapia in their tanks while adjusting the amount of salt in their water tanks. Hoppe expressed her hope that fish raised at the school will soon follow in the footsteps of ogo, a seaweed that the school distributes to the elderly in the community through the Elepaio Social Services Program at a monthly rate of roughly 250 pounds.
As part of their work, students learn to monitor a variety of complex activities, including fish health, salinity, and water quality. Additionally, they impart their knowledge to visiting school groups, according to Hoppe.
According to Hoppe, we ensure that the curriculum is a rigorous science course. Nonetheless, the abilities are universal: attempting to teach children morals, responsibility, and critical thinking skills.
According to Hoppe, the hands-on experience enables pupils to demonstrate their own abilities.
Hoppe added that although while not all Wai Anae students go on to work in the aquaculture sector, the education is still worthwhile and it doesn’t really matter where they end up.
According to her, the abilities are universal.
Lawmakers and state organizations have endorsed Wai Anae High School’s efforts, and they provide funding for several of the center’s initiatives, including the planned expansion.
In order to expand its campus size and enable additional research in the upcoming years, the center is ready to start construction on Thursday.
Past students have studied anything from keeping tilapia, mullet, and shrimp in the same system to a future project that will examine how water salt levels affect tilapia flavor. Additionally, the school is involved in a research project on limu kohu raising with Symbrosia, a biotechnology company based on Big Island.
With the only secondary learning center devoted to aquaculture, Wai Anae High School’s center already sets itself apart from all other schools in the state, giving the roughly two dozen students who join each year a unique opportunity to learn about the intricate details of fish and algae cultivation.
Apart from Wai Anae, there are learning centers at four other schools throughout the state that are more generally centered around food and agriculture.
One of those schools is Waipahu High School, which has brand-new facilities devoted to teaching students about agriculture and natural resources. That includes aquaculture, which is partly run by Jeff Garvey, a Waipahu teacher and former shrimp farmer.
Together with the University of Hawai i Hilo, the only university in the state to offer a complete, four-year bachelor’s degree specifically focused on aquaculture, Garvey has created a workforce program to assist spark interest in the industry.
However, despite Waipahu High School’s brand-new, opulent, $29 million facilities, Garvey acknowledged that drawing children to the field can still be challenging.
“A college degree is out of reach for many students,” said Hoppe, coordinator of the marine center. Therefore, even with years of experience, it is hard to find a position in a field that requires certain qualifications, which makes work in the trades more appealing and accessible.
But even those who have graduated from college are in pain. Maria Haws, a professor of aquaculture at UH and director of the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center, said that some are compelled to choose other jobs because of a lack of opportunities in the business.
According to Haws, a new college graduate recently joined the fire department with the intention of accumulating money to eventually launch her own farm because of the high startup costs in Hawaii.
If we cannot set up farms, and if families and small businesses can t set up farms because of regulatory inhibitions, what s the point of producing a bunch of well-trained students that will just go somewhere else and get paid a lot more? “Haws said.” There isn’t enough business to take them on.
And while some students end up in research roles or as educators, Haws said,the federal government s squeezeon academic funding may also compromise that pipeline, too.
Haws said she hopes more lawmakers step up to address the shortcomings in the industry, in light of climate change, movements at the federal level and for the benefit of the state in general.
If we have to import 80% of our seafood, yet we consume almost twice as much per capita as other states, Haws said, what the heck are we really doing?
