Abstract
Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, is an estuary used as a harbor for a military installation and for recreation, fishing, and research purposes. Rapid shoaling of the bay had been reported and attributed to increased stream erosion and sedimentation from the newly suburbanized watershed. Comparison of a 1976 bathymetric survey of Kaneohe Bay with that of a 1927 survey indicates an average shoaling of the lagoonal area of 1.0 m. Average shoaling for the north and middle bay at 0.6m/49 years (1.2 cm yr−1 is lower than for the south bay at 1.5m/49 years (3.1 cm yr−1). The total lagoonal fill in the 49-year period is about 1.95× 107 m3, assigned as follows: 64% carbonate detritus from the reefs as well as growth of living coral and unrecorded dredging spill, 9% recorded dredging spoils, and only 27% terrigenous sediment. Seismic reflection profiles distinguish spoil from natural sediment and show that the infilling sediment is trapped between, burying reef structures built during Quaternary lower stands of the sea. There had been little obvious change between 1882 and 1927 surveys. All information suggests that increased shoaling rates since 1927 are due to reported and unreported disposal of dredge spoil, mainly from 1939 to 1945 for ship and seaplane channels in the south bay, and not from increased runoff and urbanization around the south bay.
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Hawaii Institute of Geophysics Contribution No. 1257.
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Hollett, K.J., Moberly, R. Sedimentation, dredging, and spoil disposal in a subtropical estuarine lagoon. Geo 4, 31–42 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02380497
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02380497