PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Elizabeth Madin
Co-INVESTIGATOR: Annie Innes-Gold
Graduate fellow: Andrew Petitt
Research Track: Island Sustainability and Resilience

This interdisciplinary project supports community-led efforts to establish a marine managed area (MMA) in Kailua Bay, Oʻahu, a region severely impacted by overfishing and ocean warming. Tropical nearshore fisheries in Hawaiʻi are essential for food security but are often data-poor, making effective management against growing environmental threats challenging. The proposed Kailua MMA, aims to restore depleted fish populations and strengthen reef resilience by integrating traditional Hawaiian fishing practices with modern science. To ensure the MMA’s success, the project will conduct new field surveys to establish pre-MMA baseline data on fish biomass and fishing effort, enabling a crucial decadal comparison of reef health. These empirical findings will then be integrated into a spatially explicit population model to simulate and optimize different management strategies, such as gear restrictions and bag limits. The model is also designed to assess how projected sea surface temperature changes may affect the ecological benefits, including fish stock recovery and biological spillover into adjacent areas. This research will provide the state with a robust, science-based tool to guide the design and adaptive management of a resilient, community-supported marine protected area.