Hawaii's Vanishing Beach: When Sand vs. Structures Becomes the Real Fight

Kaanapali Beach in West Maui used to be gloriously wide. Aerial photos from 1988 show a stunning expanse of sand that drew visitors from around the world. Today, that same beach has shrunk to a thin ribbon of sand wedged between the ocean and high-rise resorts, with exposed rock, drainage pipes, and orange fencing marking where erosion has won.

The culprit? Rising sea levels driven by climate change, which allows more wave energy to reach shore with each tidal cycle. But here’s where the story gets complicated: community advocates argue the real problem isn’t the beach itself—it’s what was built on top of the sand dunes that once naturally replenished it. West Maui community advocate Kai Nishiki puts it bluntly: the resorts were sited too close to the ocean decades ago, and now we’re all paying the price for poor planning.

The proposed fix is a sand replenishment project, backed by the Kaanapali Operations Association and supported by marine engineering firm Sea Engineering. The plan? Dredge offshore sand and restore the beach to its 1988 footprint. It sounds logical. The Pilikahakai Foundation, established by property owners in 2024, frames it as a science-backed, nature-based solution that would also restore dunes and reintroduce native plants. But when this project went before the Board of Land and Natural Resources in 2023, the state voted against spending public funds on it after hearing concerns about impacts on marine life and a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars.

Now the property owners are moving forward with their own version, expected to file applications soon. The real tension isn’t about whether the beach is eroding—everyone agrees it is. It’s about whether we should keep engineering our way around poor development decisions, or finally admit that some coastal structures need to relocate inland. Nishiki argues that nourishment is just a temporary band-aid that reinforces a false sense of security and encourages continued investment in hazardous areas. The only real long-term fix, she contends, is managed retreat: moving development away from the shoreline and letting beaches migrate naturally.

It’s a battle playing out across Hawaii and beyond. Do we keep pumping sand onto shrinking beaches to protect existing investments? Or do we fundamentally rethink how we develop coastlines in an era of rising seas? The Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, hit hardest by an“erosional hot spot”where a reef break accelerates wave energy, says it’s committed to collaborative solutions. But collaboration requires both sides to agree on what the real problem is—and right now, they don’t.