Of Outriggers, Birds, Koa Forests, and the Morro Bay Estuary

In Pre-contact Hawaiian culture, the canoe builders enjoyed a position of singular respect and admiration. They were that societies' most skilled designers and builders, the 3-D men who, with stone tools, turned ideas into reality. Their outrigger and double-hulled canoes provided means for exploration, travel, transport, and trade. Their canoes enabled them to harvest protein from the sea, giving them a platform from which to fish or dive. The outriggers also provided recreation in the form of racing and surfing. See Canoe Surfing page.

The building of a canoe started with the selection of a tree. Unfortunately for the canoe builders, the desired tree, Acacia Koa, grew in dense forests on the slopes of the volcanoes, a mile up from sea level and miles from the coast.

For anyone reading this, especially birders, it is appropriate and relevant to note that the original seeds for these monarchs of the Pre-contact Hawaiian botanical kingdom were most probably brought to the islands in the bowels of migratory birds. Millennia later, Polynesian navigators would follow the yearly migratory routes of these birds to undiscovered islands they knew had to exist. Birding was not a casual pastime for Polynesian navigators, but rather a very intimate knowledge of bird behavior. Following the birds, navigating by the stars, and using their knowledge of their vast oceanic world, Polynesians would travel to every inhabitable island in the Pacific.

The Golden Plover would lead them to the Hawaiian Islands to the north. The Long Tailed Cuckoo would lead them south from Tahiti to New Zealand. What bird led the Polynesians far east to Easter Island is unknown (of the 25 seabirds that once nested on Easter Island, 14 are now extinct). This great expansion of the Polynesian seafaring culture had reached all of these far flung destinations by about 1200 A.D., completing what is undeniably mankind's greatest and most challenging migration.

For the Hawaiian canoe builder, selection of the right tree was critical. After felling a tree, discovering an internal flaw that would render the log unsuitable for canoe building made for weeks of super-human effort expended for nothing. To guide them in the selection of the correct tree, the canoe builders would again turn to their observation of bird behavior.

Having made the trek up into the forests with their stone tools, they would wait, sometimes for days, until they sighted an 'elepaio, a small, handsome forest dwelling bird. They would then follow the bird through the forest, the bird's behavior telling the canoe builders which trees were best suited for canoe building.

Once the tree was felled, the 'elapaio's behavior on the fallen tree gave the canoe builders further information about what to expect in the log's transformation into a seagoing canoe. The log would be trimmed and rough-shaped in the forest. Then came the dangerous task of moving the roughhewn canoe down the slopes to the coast. Once near the sea, the canoe would be finished and fitted out for whatever purpose it had been commissioned.

When Cook arrived he would marvel at the Hawaiian canoe - fast, seaworthy, and finished to a standard as high as the finest English cabinet maker's. Indeed, when the HMS Resolution first anchored in Kealakekua Bay, they were surrounded by over 15,000 men, women, and children paddling over 3,000 canoes. This entire fleet's building process had been predicated on the observation of a particularly shy bird's behavior. Indeed the entire culture's existence in that Hawaiian paradise was the result of their ancestors knowing that the migratory birds had to be going somewhere.

Sadly, with the arrival of Cook, all this would start to change. Now, and probably forever, the fragile habitat that once supported this balanced interaction between man and his environment is lost. Will we ever see the great Acacia Koa forests again? Probably not. Only ten-percent of the original Koa forests exist, the result of the introduction of cattle and goats and the incipient breakdown of the ecosystem. Because of the introduction of species, both Acacia koa and the 'elepaio have been described as stranger in their own land." Unfortunately, hindsight requires no special talent. Is there a lesson here? Undeniably.

From the beginning I considered the Orchid Outrigger canoes to be a noble project built for frivolous reasons. In short, it was my idea of the perfect craft for having fun. The outriggers had no purpose other than facilitating a good time. A 17' 4" toy. I admit it.

I succeeded in my objective (with a lot of help along the way). The canoes are fun beyond my wildest expectations. And while having such a good time on a craft I should have called the "Funrigger," I rediscovered two old pastimes - birding and photography.

It seems we have strangely come full-circle. From an ancient canoe building process that started with the critical observation of bird behavior, to a more recent canoe building process that has led back to bird watching. It is within this strange symmetry that the Orchid Outrigger has found a purpose - the chance to be more than a toy.

I see now that the canoe is really a useful tool and a most important tool at that. It is a tool with which to raise awareness and to teach appreciation for our own piece of paradise, which is threatened but thankfully still largely intact. To the ancient Hawaiian canoe builder, birding was the key to selecting the correct tree for a canoe. For Orchid Outrigger, birding has provided the key to a small canoe's real purpose and calling.