ANINI BEACH — Aquatic environmental nonprofit Reef Guardians is undertaking its fifth annual Reef Camp at Anini Beach, an educational summer program for keiki ages 8 through 13 focused on Kaua‘i’s diverse aquatic ecosystem.
“They’re learning who their water neighbors are — they’re meeting their neighbors,” said Robin Mazor, executive director of Reef Guardians Hawai‘i and founder of Reef Camp. “They’re having a wonderful wildlife experience. They’re learning ecology. They’re learning how the animals and the limu interact to have a healthy environment.”
Formed in 2017, the camp came to fruition as an extension of Mazor’s decades-long efforts to teach Kaua‘i’s children about the ocean and its inhabitants, from camping trips as a public school teacher to expeditions.
“Reef Camp is just building on that, and every year we’ve been building on and refining it,” Mazor said. “It’s incredibly organized at this point, and we have kids from all over the island come to this camp — last week, we had kids from 14 different schools.”
The camp takes a hands-on approach to education, teaching campers about life by bringing them to the ocean via group snorkeling. Additionally, a partnership with the Department of Land and Natural Resource’s Division of Aquatic Resources allows Reef Camp to take certain invertebrates and limu out of the waters for close-up viewing through high-powered microscopes.
“We all learn stuff and see amazing things — all of us, even the adults,” Mazor said. “We see things that we’ve never seen before … there’s all kinds of critters out there that you have no idea even exists, and then we can see them with microscopes. It’s amazing.”
The camp is also largely guided by Hawai‘i’s traditional practices, teaching campers about Native Hawaiian ecocultural traditions.
“We start every day with what we call the piko — it’s a circle,” said Jessica Rickard, marine biologist with Reef Guardians and a counselor at Reef Camp. “And we do a welcoming chant, the E Ho Mai chant — it’s a chant that’s meant to reach out to the power of the ancestors and learn from them, and kind of fine-tune our observation skills.”
“And we teach the kids about kilo,” she continued, “which is the Hawaiian concept of observing what’s around them, and not just reading books to learn things, but experiencing things and learning through that.”
Additionally, Reef Camp teaches keiki the Hawaiian names of the plants and animals they study, as well as their traditional cultural uses.
The campers don’t just take in the knowledge they gain, though — counselors encourage them to make positive changes in the world using the information they’ve learned.
“On the third day of every week, we have the kids brainstorm and decide — what in their lives has an impact on the ocean, and how can they encourage their families and their friends to do things differently so that the ocean is less impacted by whatever they’re doing?” Rickard said. “They’re advocates — child advocates. Basically, they’re trying to speak up with their little voices for the ocean.”
Above all though, the counselors make sure campers go home with smiles on their faces.
“We have five rules, but then from six to infinity, it’s ‘have fun,’” said Renee Janton, ocean educator at Reef Guardians and a counselor at Reef Camp.
While Mazor acknowledged that the Reef Camp may not be the right fit for an indoors-inclined keiki, she suggested it’s the perfect opportunity for curiosity-driven children who love to see the incredible species Kaua‘i’s waters have to offer.
“It’s not for everybody,” she said. “It’s for the people who really love to dive in and see the animals and get to know the ocean. These kids really care about it. They learn about it, they love it and they want to take care of it.”
Mazor continued, noting the importance of teaching the island’s children the principles of aloha ‘aina.
“Why do we do this? Why do we put all this energy into it? Because the kids are our future. Because they’re the caretakers … if you’re introduced to caring, knowledge and wisdom at a young age, you carry that through your life.”
Families interested in signing up for Reef Camp can register at www.reefguardians.org/education.
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Jackson Healy, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-4966 or jhealy@thegardenisland.com.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of Kauai Ocean Discovery, which is open weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kauai Ocean Discovery is located at Kukui Grove Center in Lihue.
