Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve will close for two weeks in September so its public parking lots can be repaved.
The repaving work is scheduled from Monday, Sept. 8, through Tuesday, Sept. 23, weather permitting.
The closure allows a city contractor to repave and restripe the two main public parking lots with about 280 stalls, an announcement Tuesday from the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Parks and Recreation noted.
DPR spokesperson Nathan Serota told Aloha State Daily in an email Tuesday that the parking lot is "very popular and fills up every day the nature preserve is open to the public."
Seal Pros LLC will complete the work and the repaving contract is nearly $840,000. Serota says that money will come from the Hanauma Bay Special Fund, which is funded by entry fees from tourists.
"The main roadway and commercial lot were repaved within the past 10 years, so these public lots were due," Serota said.
According to DPR, the main road was repaved in October 2019 while the commercial parking lot was repaved in September 2017
The lava flows that created the Hanauma Bay region began began about 40,000 years ago, while the bay itself was created about 32,000 years ago "in a violent series of explosions" that occurred after a volcanic vent opened underwater.
Today, DPR maintains the land portion of the preserve, while the state Department of Land and Natural Resources oversees the ocean.
Once a favorite fishing spot for Hawaiian royalty, the preserve's website states that Hanauma Bay was designated as Hawai‘i's first Marine Life Conservation District in 1967.
The number of visitors peaked in the 1970s and 1980s at an estimated 10,000 people per day, but a management plan put into place in 1990 helped mitigate the impact, the site notes. In 2019 — before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 closed the preserve for nearly eight months — an average of nearly 3,000 people attended each day.
The city says that more than 400,000 people visited Hanauma Bay in 2024, with daily attendance around 1,400. Of those, a little more than 28,000 were adult residents. You can find last year's attendance numbers here.
Serota says September is historically a slower month for tourism and that's reflected in Hanauma Bay attendance numbers.
The beach at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve also is closed today, July 30, because of unusual currents caused from Tuesday's tsunami event, DPR said today on its Facebook page.
ICYMI: A tsunami warning was issued Tuesday afternoon, July 29, following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia. Waves hit the Islands just after 7 p.m. last night, causing some flooding.
The National Weather Service’s tsunami advisory for Hawai‘i was canceled this morning.
While the risk of damaging tsunami waves has passed, residents are still advised that strong currents, sea level fluctuations and other lingering effects can still be dangerous for swimmers and boaters. Residents should therefore use caution when approaching the coasts.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
