[4][5] The lake measures around 840.7 acres (340.2 ha) during the rainy seasons.

[7] According to Hawaiian linguists Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini, the lake and the surrounding land division was named after its owner, either the Hawaiian high chief (aliʻi) or the Oʻahu trickster god Hālaliʻi.

[9] A cinder cone of Haleakalā on the island of Maui also shares the same name.

[3] The lake bed was also used for the cultivation of sugarcane where famously it grew "in the sand with only leaves protruding".

Hawaiians bring the baby pua mullets from the sea in barrels, release them during the rainy seasons and then catch the grown fish when the water recedes in the summer.