More than 2.2 million measurements of oceanographic forcing and the resulting watercolumn properties were made off U.S. National Park Service's Kalaupapa National Historical Park on the north shore of Molokai, Hawaii, between 2008 and 2010 to understand the role of oceanographic processes on the health and sustainability of the area's marine resources. The tides off the Kalaupapa Peninsula are mixed semidiurnal. The wave climate is dominated by two end-members: large northwest Pacific winter swell that directly impacts the study site, and smaller, shorter-period northeast trade-wind waves that have to refract around the peninsula, resulting in a more northerly direction before propagating over the study site. The currents primarily are alongshore and are faster at the surface than close to the seabed; large wave events, however, tend to drive flow in a more cross-shore orientation. The tidal currents flood to the north and ebb to the south. The waters off the peninsula appear to be a mix of cooler, more saline, deeper oceanic waters and shallow, warmer, lower-salinity nearshore waters, with intermittent injections of freshwater, generally during the winters. Overall, the turbidity levels were low, except during large wave events.