The Waiheʻe study area extends continuously from Waiheʻe Point southeast to include Waiheʻe Beach Park. The coastline consists of hard shoreline, cobble, and sandy beach. The western portion of the study area is characterized by large cobble shoreline with no significant shoreline position change indicated between the 1912 T-sheet and 2018 aerial photographs.
As a whole (transects 0 – 96), the area has experienced moderate erosion since 1912 with an average rate of -0.4 ft/yr. Waiʻehu Municipal Golf Course, constructed in 1928, dominates the southern portion of the Waiheʻe study area. Waiheʻe Beach Park is located seaward of the golf course. Offshore of the park is one of the widest fringing reefs on Maui, beginning at Waiheʻe Point with a width of over one thousand feet and narrowing to approximately five hundred feet at Paukūkalo (Waiʻehu study area)*. The inshore reef areas fronting Waiheʻe Beach Park are shallow with sandy channels. The narrow sand beach is littered with wave deposited coral rubble, and limu – seaweed – is deposited at high tide. The sandy shoreline in this section of the study area (transects 54 – 96) has experienced light erosion over time with an average rate of -0.1ft/yr.
*Clark, John R. The Beaches of Maui County. 1989. University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu
Last updated: July 2021
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