"I've noticed real changes at Mākena Landing over the past few years, both in construction and in recreational use." Rebecca Lesher, quality assurance officer at Hui O Ka Wai Ola and a diver herself, said that in a Maui Now report from August 11, 2026. She was one of the people who asked for the site to be monitored again.
There were a lot of them. Maui Now reported that Mākena Landing drew more requests for renewed monitoring than any other site in the Hui's history. On July 1, 2026, volunteer technicians took the first sample there since 2020. The raw results from that sample are expected on the Hui's website and public data platforms during the fourth quarter of 2026. That window opened on October 1.
When those numbers post, the Landing won't be starting from scratch. The Hui sampled it from 2017 to 2020, so the new readings come with the site's own history attached. They also arrive in a year when the group's own report says the waters from Wailea to ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu, historically the clearest on this coast, are getting cloudier at most sites.
A six-year gap with a baseline on each side
Most new monitoring sites go years before their data says anything, because a single reading has nothing to compare against. Mākena Landing is different. It has three years of Hui data from before 2020, then nothing through mid-2026, and now a sample every three weeks.
Kim Falinski, lead water scientist with The Nature Conservancy and lead scientist with Hui O Ka Wai Ola, explained why that matters in the same Maui Now article:
"Long-term, quality-assured data is what turns a place people love into a place we can actually track and protect over time – to document success or to advocate for change."
Her phrasing covers both outcomes. Readings close to the pre-2020 numbers would show the Landing held steady through the changes Lesher described, and any shift would be measurable only because those earlier numbers exist.
The two changes that put the Landing back on the list
Maui Now pointed to two shifts in the area behind the renewed attention.
The first is on land. Construction near the shoreline has added paved, impervious surfaces, and those send more runoff straight into the ocean.
The second is in the water. Maui Now reported that after Maui County adjusted its permitting policy for commercial ocean recreation at several South Maui beach parks, many small businesses running scuba, snorkeling, stand-up paddle and kayak tours moved their operations to Mākena Landing. The article describes kayak and boat tours working the reef throughout the day, alongside families swimming and picnicking and snorkelers heading toward the turtles that gave nearby "Turtle Town" its name.
The article says land-based development and heavier recreational use can both affect nearshore water quality. It doesn't claim either one has done so at the Landing yet. Documenting that is what the sampling is for. Lesher put it this way: the goal is to "document any impacts to water quality before they go unnoticed."
What the 2026 report says about the coast around it
The Landing's new numbers will land in a regional picture that's already been drawn. On June 6, 2026, the Hui published its Coastal Water Quality Report 2016-2025, the summary it produces every two years. Here's how it describes South Maui from north to south:
| Stretch of coast | Turbidity, 2016–2025 | Nitrates |
|---|---|---|
| Māʻalaea Harbor to South Kīhei | Far above Hawaiʻi Department of Health standards | High, peaking at Cove Park |
| Wailea to Mākena | Lower than the Kīhei stretch, but still above standards | Generally low south of Wailea |
| Wailea to ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu, recent years | Concerning increases at most sites; Ulua flagged as an area of concern | Ulua highest on average; Ulua and Maluaka now comparable as both have decreased |
The bottom row is the one closest to the Landing. The report covers twelve sites across the Wailea, Moʻoloa and ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu watersheds. It lists what they have in common: every shore faces west, land use upslope is similar, streams don't reach the top of the mountain and flow only in heavy rain, and construction and development pressure has increased in recent years. Its headline finding for the region is that "while waters are historically clearest in this region, most sites are seeing concerning increases in turbidity over the past few years." It also reports that salinity has increased at all sites in the region.
That puts the Landing in a specific position. It sits in the stretch of leeward Maui with the clearest history, inside a region where clarity is now slipping at most sites, and it has its own pre-2020 record. The first new readings could show the Landing following that regional trend or holding apart from it.
Not every data point in the report comes from the Hui's own volunteers. This edition added Department of Health turbidity data, which is how the analysis reached twelve sites. Only seven of them have nitrate data.
Reading the three measurements
The Hui's technicians test the Landing for indicators that include turbidity, pH and nutrients, using the same quality-assured protocols as the rest of the network. Each one links back to the regional findings in its own way:
- Turbidity measures how cloudy the water is. It's the measure behind the report's main concern for Wailea to ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu, and the one most directly tied to runoff from paved ground.
- Nutrients include nitrates. The report calls them generally low south of Wailea, and Ulua and Maluaka have both come down over the last two years. A Landing reading can be set against those two neighbors.
- pH is part of the standard panel the Hui runs across its network, so Landing readings line up with every other site it monitors.
The report also includes a caution that helps when reading a single sample. It notes that beach sand moving with storms is a natural erosion and recovery cycle, and a beach without shoreline hardening such as sea walls can recover. One cloudy reading after a big swell or a rare stream flow is weather. The group publishes long-term trends for exactly that reason, and Liz Yannell, director of Hui O Ka Wai Ola, describes the work as "providing the trusted data that helps inform long-term stewardship."
When the numbers post, and where they go
On the Hui's data page, the South Maui spreadsheet runs through the second quarter of 2026, and as of the latest check, the July 1 result hadn't been posted. Mākena Landing is back on the group's current sites list. The delay is part of the process. Every sample goes through a lab and quality assurance review before release, which is why a July sample shows up in the fourth quarter.
The data doesn't stay on the Hui's website. The group began sampling in West Maui in 2016 and calls itself the state's longest-running citizen science water quality effort. Its data is used by the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, The Nature Conservancy, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health Clean Water Branch and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the Wailea to ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu section, the report lists the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council and the Wailea Community Association as partners. Its "what we can do" panel says the community can help watchdog construction activities and report broken BMPs to the County through the SeeClickFix app.
Testing at the Landing is done by trained volunteers, and the Hui is recruiting more. Details on viewing findings, following along and joining the team are at huiokawaiola.com. The current report came out in June, and summaries come every two years, so the next regional summary is expected around 2028. By then, the Landing's three-week sampling will have produced a new run of readings to set beside its 2017–2020 record.
At Kela Fernandez, we follow the details that shape daily life along the South Maui shoreline, from new data to the community groups collecting it. If you'd like to talk through what the coast between Wailea and Mākena means for your plans here, schedule a personal consultation.
