Channels of the Hawaiian Islands Maui. Although the channel is only about at its shortest point, it is one of the windiest and roughest in the Hawaiian Islands. The Kalohi Channel is the stretch of water separating Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. Depth of water in this channel is about and width is . This is one of the less treacherous channels between islands in the archipelago, although strong winds and choppy sea conditions are frequent. Kalolohia beach on the Lānaʻi coast is also known as "Shipwreck Beach" because of a wreck on the reef there. Kalohi means "the slowness." The Kaiwi Channel (also known as the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Atoll straddles Darwin Point, and will sink beneath the ocean when its coral reef cannot keep up with the rate of subsidence, a destiny that awaits every Hawaiian island. The Hawaiian Islands are about from North America and from Asia, and it is because of this isolation that the Hawaiian Islands have extraordinary numbers of unique species. Only a species that could fly or swim immense distances could reach the archipelago. But whereas Polynesians, and later, Europeans, have largely altered the ecosystem of the Main Hawaiian islands by introducing alien species, the ecosystems of the NWHI remain, for the most