The Hokulea, an ancient Polynesian voyaging vessel, is most likely the type of craft that the first Polynesians used to voyage to the Hawaiian Islands. Over the ages, Native Hawaiians have used the ocean for fishing, aquaculture, trade, transportation, and communication as well as religious practices, and its role in Hawaiian life cannot be underestimated. The Native Hawaiian hierarchical system of social organization ensured that the Hawaiian nation lived in harmony with the spiritual and physical world. This philosophy was also true for the sea. Aquaculture is an important historical use of the marine environment, and nowhere else in the Pacific can one find the numbers and varieties of fishponds that occurred in prehistoric Hawaii.
Fishponds are important archaeological features and a link with Hawaii's past.
Several fishponds are found in coastal areas adjacent to the sanctuary. The Maui Sanctuary office is adjacent to the 1.5 acre Native Hawaiiana fishpond, the largest remaining fishpond in South Maui.