The ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Reef Restoration Program fuses cultural leadership, multi-modal education, advanced science, and government engagement for communities of people and coral in Hawaiʻi. The 120 mile west coast of Hawaiʻi Island is the largest contiguous coral reef in the Hawaiian Archipelago, harboring a diversity of communities, from native Hawaiian villages to new subdivisions, and from urban areas to tourism industry hotspots. The condition of our reefs in West Hawaiʻi closely parallels how people interact with the nearshore environment, demonstrating a clear and longlasting relationship between people and corals. Ākoʻakoʻa is a shared stage to foster a deeper connection between coastal and coral communities for collective action in an era of climate change.
ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Program Elements
Cultural Leadership: ʻĀkoʻakoʻa is built from a foundation of Hawaiian cultural knowledge, with our Cultural Advisory Group guiding the program, and our regional and global knowledge exchanges serving to advance cultural leadership at all programmatic levels.
Multi-modal Education: ʻĀkoʻakoʻa educational element engages tourism, fosters a resident citizen science program, drives a reef vocational program for professional workforce development, and facilitates the ASU School of Ocean Futures undergraduate and graduate programs.
Advanced Science: ʻĀkoʻakoʻa scientific tools include the world’s most advanced sea, air, and land mapping and environmental monitoring assets, high-definition coastal and land-reef connectivity models, extensive water quality testing, and a massive facility for large-scale, broadcast propagation of corals.
Government Engagement: Our government relations element focuses on cross-jurisdictional engagement and training, data provisioning to decision makers, and community-government liaison support.
ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Facilities
In support of its extensive cultural, education, scientific and government engagement elements, a key asset of ʻĀkoʻakoʻa is a state-of-the-art coral research and propagation facility, currently under construction at the Ridge to Reef Restoration Center (3RC) in Kailua-Kona, located at the midpoint of West Hawaiʻi’s coral reef. The coral facility houses state-of-the-art highly instrumented coral propagation systems to drive large-scale research on West Hawaiʻi coral thermal and pollution tolerance, reproduction, and resilience applications. 3RC is also a home to the Terraformation organization, Hawaiʻi Division of Aquatic Resources Restoration Project, and ASU School of Ocean Futures education programs.
Complementing the 3RC location is the joint ASU-USFS Pacific Ridge-to-Reef program in Hilo, Hawaiʻi Marine Education and Research Center (MERC) in Miloliʻi, and a growing marine presence in the Kawaihae area. Our fleet of maritime and aviation assets interoperate with our facilities to support rapid response, long-term monitoring, education, and community engagement.