PHOTOS BY DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jeffrey Kuwabara, outreach coordinator at the Hanauma Bay Education Program, pointed out details last month on a replica of various reef structures found in Hanauma Bay. The reef was made from castings of actual structures, making it as accurate as possible.
Marine Center Some 10 months after its originally scheduled completion date, the city's controversial $13.1 million Hanauma Bay Marine Education Center and Nature Preserve opens to the public at noon today.
debuts today
The $13.1 million Hanauma Bay
facility boasts interactive
displays and videosBy Genevieve A. Suzuki
gsuzuki@starbulletin.com"It's been a long way from (the start of) improvements," said Ben Lee, city managing director. Construction on the project began in April 2001.
During construction, the city to date has paid $2.5 million in cost overruns, which has raised questions with critics, members of the City Council and even Friends of Hanauma Bay.
Hanauma Bay's entrance fee is $3 for nonresidents and free for Hawaii residents, military personnel stationed in Hawaii and children 12 years old and younger. The fees went toward the construction costs.
Visitors enter the 10,000-square-foot facility made of faux rock -- fiberglass, resin and cement -- upon entering the park, past the snack bar to the left and a colorful mural to the right.
In one portion of the mural, artist Thomas Deir depicted part of the reef as two arms wrestling, which is the meaning of Hanauma, said Hanauma Bay Education Program Outreach Coordinator Jeffrey Kuwabara.
The snack bar is still under construction and will not open until Sept. 10. Current Hanauma Bay concessionaire Volume Services won the bid to run the 1,800-square-foot snack bar, the only food concession at Hanauma Bay.
Visitors are discouraged from bringing concession food to the beach because it creates a trash problem, Lee said, but picnic baskets and coolers are still permitted.
Once inside the center, visitors have several opportunities to learn more about Hanauma Bay and its many inhabitants.
There are several interactive television sets with headers, "Live from the Reef" and "Identification Station," equipped with information about marine life and the coral reef.
There is also an education alcove for children which features items such as shark teeth and a microscope that examines specimens such as crab zoea, the early larval stage of crabs.
PHOTOS BY DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
The exterior of the Hanauma Bay Education Center was made to mimic the natural rock found around the ancient crater rim. It is also populated with many native Hawaiian plants, including naupaka, ilima, pili grass and hao.
When visitors, both tourists and Hawaii residents, enter, they will be asked to watch a seven-minute educational video, which cost $251,000 to produce, Lee said. They do not have to watch the video, which was designed to show ways to protect the reef.
"It's on an honor system," Lee said.
The video created controversy when Jay April, managing partner of Artifact Studios, filed a lawsuit alleging that his company had a verbal agreement with city officials to create the video and install the equipment for it at the educational center.
The city decided instead to produce the video itself, saying it would be cheaper, and turned to local musicians Na Leo Pilimehana to provide its music. At one point in the video, the trio performs a song about what not to do while at Hanauma Bay. Pictures of people stepping on the reef flash as the group sings, "Don't step on me. When you tread on the wana ohana (reef family), you're stepping on me."
Kuwabara said the video improves communication with visitors.
"One problem we had was an attention problem," said Kuwabara.
"People were in a rush to get to the beach."
The second problem Kuwabara described was a language barrier between visitors and staff.
Headsets translate the video into Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian for foreign-language speakers. A smaller screen with closed captions for the hearing impaired is set to the left of the large screen.
Kuwabara is a member of the Sea Grant Extension Service, operating out of the School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The education center utilizes Sea Grant faculty and students as volunteers.
