Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 2, 1 February 2008 — Good eats! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Good eats!

Harvest day at He'eia fishpond nets 700 pounds of prized moi

By Lisa Asato Public lnfurmatiun Specialist

Aboard a boat at He 'eia fishpond, Mehana Makainai ealls out the weights of baskets of freshly harvested moi: "15 ... 25 ... 20 ... 17 ... 15 ... we're over 400!" Plaeed in red baskets for weighing, the silvery, slippery moi — just then eulled from the braekish waters with a seine net — flipped and flopped ineessantly, and Makainai seemed to relish the experienee. A fiseal manager for Paepae o He'eia, Makainai and seven others had new assigmnents on the morning of lan. 11 — to help harvest enough moi to fulfill 670 pounds of pre-sale orders for its third big eoimnunity sale. "The fish harvest is everybody's job," said Taani Wolfgraimn, of the Kū Hou Kuapā program of Paepae o He'eia, whieh reeently reeeived a $65,250 grant from the Offiee of Hawaiian Affairs to support wall restoration and eommunity workdays. "It doesn't matter what program you work under, we all work together when it's time to harvest fish." With the moi sale, Paepae o He'eia was fulfilling part of its mission to provide food for the community using values and eoncepts from a traditional fishpond.

Constructed an estimated six to eight centuries ago, the Windward O'ahu fishpond saw the revival of fish cultivation within its walls in the 1990s by another group, and most recently by Paepae o He'eia, whieh received its first batch of moi fingerlings from Oeeanie Institute in November 2005. As for the moi being harvested on this day, they "eame to us as little babies" 14 months ago, said Keli'i Kotubetey, coordinator of 'Āina Momona, the nonprofit's eeonomie development program. As the catch was being placed into a cooler chilled with 500 pounds of iee, he added, "They're wannblooded animals, so you want to get them cold as quick as possible just to keep them fresh." About an hour's worth of work produced a comfortable stopping point: 707 pounds of moi, approximately half-pound to three-quar-ter-pound eaeh, the perfect size for one meal. Executive director Hi'ilei Kawelo welcomed the harvest as a respite from the endless physical work of restoring the fishpond's 6,500-foot-long rock wall. "It's frosting on the eake," she said. "It's the culmination of all the work we do here." E3

Sweet tasting moi are the catch of the day. - Photo: Sterling Wong