These shores were the heart of ʻEwa, a moku (district) counted among the political centers of Oʻahu before Kamehameha. Puʻuloa was its larder. Observers of old Hawaiʻi judged these bays the most favorable in all the islands for building loko iʻa, the walled coastal fishponds in which Hawaiians raised fish on a scale found almost nowhere else; people had tended them here since at least the mid-1400s. Shrimp, shellfish, and penned fish came out of Puʻuloa in steady abundance, and the families of ʻEwa built a settled, well-fed life around the harbor's quiet lochs.
The harbor's other ancient name tells you what made it rich. Hawaiians called it Wai Momi, “the waters of pearl,” for the beds of pipi — native pearl oysters — that once carpeted its shallows. The momi (pearls) inside meant little to those who gathered them; it was the oyster itself, eaten fresh or dried, and the bright mother-of-pearl shell, carved into fishhooks and ornaments, that made Wai Momi a place of plenty. A third name, Puʻuloa, “long hill,” marked the low ridge of land that framed the water. Pearl, garland, long hill — three names for one place, each older than the harbor's later fame.
