The Hawai`i Supreme Court has issued a ruling strongly reaffirming that the shoreline in Hawai`i, which marks the boundary between public beach and private land, extends to the highest wash of the waves, and rejecting the use of artificially planted vegetation to determine the shoreline

The court, in a unanimous decision, reversed the state’s decision and held that the shoreline should be established “at the highest reach of the highest wash of the waves.” In so ruling, the court reaffirmed its long-standing precedent from the late-60s and early-70s, in which the court established the shoreline at the high water mark, “usually evidenced by the edge of vegetation or the line of debris left by the wash of the waves.” In recent years, the state and landowners misinterpreted this precedent to emphasize use of the vegetation line as the shoreline, even when the debris and wash of the waves extended further inland. The court’s latest decision rejected this misinterpretation and confirmed that the ultimate measure of the shoreline is the high water mark.