Mala Wharf is truly one of my most favorite shore accessible snorkel and dive sites on Maui. The location is just behind the Lahaina cannery mall, right down the road from the Old Lahaina Lua’u. The wharf was originally built as a way of shipping pineapple but its poor engineering and instability eventually led to its collapse during Hurricane Iniki in 1993. The slabs of concrete and rebar left behind left hard substrate for coral to grow and plenty of structure for fish, green sea turtles, and reef sharks to frequent the site. Below are some of my favorite images collected during a dive in November and two snorkel trips from December and January.
It’s important to keep in mind that this site is still an active boat channel with personal and commercial crafts coming in and out of the channel frequently throughout the day. The channel is very clearly marked by wood posts so DO NOT snorkel or swim past the wood posts that mark the boat channel!
