Don't Feed the Fish!

It's summer in Hawaii and unfortunately tourism is up almost double-digits in 2017, even at this time of the year. While I have nothing against tourists per se, the chances of a tourist doing something they shouldn't be doing are equally as likely as a tourist enjoying the Hawaiian islands responsibly. Sometime, though, the irresponsibility goes too far.

Poolenea Beach has long been one of my favorite beaches but it seems that within the past year there has been a great deal of trash and beach gear left behind by thoughtless people. Today, I found not one but TWO bags of 'fish food' floating in the waves...

STOPPP ITTT!

One, turtles find plastic alluring. They think it is a jellyfish and try to eat it which winds up choking them to death. Two, if you need 'fish food' to get sea life to come near you, maybe you're doing something that is making them stay away in the first place. Three, feeding the marine life upsets the natural balance of the ecosystem. Yes, many boating tour operators do it and they are wrong to do so, so please don't compound the problem. Four, DON'T LEAVE YOUR GARBAGE FLOATING IN THE OCEAN! I can only imagine how such people live. Oh, that's right, your maids clean up behind you! Disgusting behavior.

The second most horrible thing tourists do is use spray-on sunscreen and then jump right in the ocean. One, every study done has concluded that rub-on lotion is far more effective. It is especially more effective if you let it soak into the skin for a few minutes because if you get right in the ocean, the sunscreen comes off! Do people REALLY not realize this? Two, the sunscreen is hazardous to the marine life. I have personally witnessed the decline of Maui's reefs and sunscreen is one of the causes. It's really not hard to put a rash guard on, but I guess if you're using spray-on sunscreen, you are a really lazy SOB. Three, no one around you who cares a wit about their health wants to breath that aerosol garbage! I don't know how many times I've been involuntary misted. So IF you're going to put it on, do it away from other people 'cause I'm done being nice about it.

Okay, rant over. Enjoy your vacation.

ARRRRGGGHHH!

Wailea Beach; Wailea, Maui

[Note - I've reviewed this beach before and having visited again today, I feel my previous review was too kind. Read it here.]

Wailea Beach is something of an odd creature; a picture perfect tropical beach at first glance but hides something of a sinister underbelly. Okay, maybe not ‘sinister,’ but Wailea Beach isn’t everything the hotels that flank it – The Grand Wailea, the condos at Wailea Point and The Four Seasons  – would like you to believe it is.

Wailea Beach before 9am.

At first, Wailea Beach appears to be a beautiful quarter-mile stretch of smooth sand. This is true. However, if you think this is a great place to relax, then you must be a tourist: Wailea Beach is the most tourist-trafficked beach on Maui’s south side, which is okay if that’s your thing. Wailea Beach is a perfectly good spot to be crowded alongside other tourists and play in the typically soft waves that lap the shore here. It’s also a good place for novice snorkelers who are afraid of the water to practice, novice divers making their first dive, and novice stand-up paddleboarders eager to run over the former two groups of novices.

What ruins Wailea Beach besides the tourists, at least for me, is the ocean off of beach; it’s polluted, clear at shore but murky beyond 100 feet, has terrible coral growth and hardly any fish when compared to almost every other beach on Maui. Much of this has to do with the number of tourists spraying sunscreen on and then running right into the ocean, to say nothing of the run off from the development right on shore. With the ocean being no good here, is there really any reason to go to Wailea Beach?

The people watching can be good; it’s a little bit like watching zoo animals

Don't fall into the gorilla's cage!

who think they’ve been freed run amok. You can even people watch from afar as there is a nice grassy hill between the beach and its public beach parking access hardly anyone uses. Other than that, I don’t feel as though Wailea Beach has many redeeming qualities. You may have to travel further afield if you want to hit a better beach, though I will warn you that Polo Beach – a little further to the south along the Wailea beach path – is actually a worse beach than this one. Oh well, it’s the price you’ve paid too much for convenience. 

PS - Have you heard about the shark attacks here? No? Yeah, the hotels and tourist industry try to keep that kind of stuff under wraps...

Parking: Public Parking is the very next right after passing the Grand Wailea's parking area. There is limited spaces up front closer to the beach but there is overflow parking which will take you an extra -gasp!- minute or two to walk from.