The pandemic changed many things in Hawaii, including access to fresh fish. The swift departure of hundreds of thousands of tourists and the consequent closure of many hotels and restaurants eliminated the bulk of the demand for fresh fish literally overnight.
One major fish wholesaler resorted to curbside sales at Pier 38 in Honolulu Harbor just to keep the lights on, and some large commercial fishing vessel owners shut down to avoid their extensive costs of operation.
Creative solutions for distribution quickly surfaced. Community Supported Agriculture — direct purchasing between consumer and farmer — began flourishing in communities across the state, offering a model for fisheries. Local IA on Oahu, a self-described community supported fishery, provided a direct link for fresh, locally caught seafood.
Roadside fish sales proliferated on all the islands, and fresh fish retailers who could keep their doors open while meeting COVID-19 restrictions engaged long-standing relationships with fishermen to assure that preferred local seafoods were available.
A new app called FishLine — created specifically to help consumers find fresh fish directly from fishermen at no cost to either — also surfaced. FishLine was introduced on the Big Island by the Hawaii Fishing and Boating Association.
Some savvy consumers also learned that simply hanging around the launch ramp in fishing communities stretching from Kukuiula on Kauai to Honokohau on Hawaii island, particularly in the late afternoon, could often reward them with very fresh fish for dinner and a new relationship with a fisherman, all for asking, “What did you catch today?”
While there’s been no formal measurement of the resurgence of fishermen giving away portions of their catch to family, neighbors and friends — or of the growth of a trade, barter and casual exchange economy, particularly on the neighbor islands — anecdotal evidence suggests many small-boat fishermen in rural parts of the state essentially revived the Hawaiian cultural practice of sharing one’s catch.
The pandemic gave us a short course in how kanaka maoli survived in the days before the arrival of Captain Cook, when resident population numbers were little different from those today, and there were zero imports.
Such a system of direct connection between the people catching fish and the people eating that fish benefits more than just the individuals involved. It benefits the ocean itself.
That’s because short of buying direct from a small boat fisherman who’s employing only a handful of hooks to catch fish, it is very hard to know for certain if the fish you are buying was caught in nearby waters in a sustainable manner.
The opposite extreme is unwittingly buying part of a catch that represents a haul of tons of pelagic fish (along with the possibility of tons of bycatch) landed by local longliners who employ thousands of hooks and continue to catch species that are threatened by over-harvesting.
Hawaii’s industrial longline fleet significantly changed Hawaii’s fresh fish industry, and largely consolidated it in the port of Honolulu.
Prior to 1988, Hawaii’s commercial fleet was more diverse. It berthed its boats and delivered fish at ports across the state. It included many more small boats, employed more people in the support industries and spread its economic benefits more broadly. More fishermen sold direct to restaurants, fish markets, stores and other retailers, diversifying both the availability and economic impact of their catch.
As the daily market demand for tons of tuna and swordfish disappeared when the pandemic blossomed, and many workers were told to go home, folks who knew how to fish turned to the sea to feed their families and friends, to trade for fresh produce and generate some pocket money.
We had come full circle since the days before the growth of a cash economy in the early 1800s, and the later industrialization of our fishing fleet. For the first time in over 200 years, you could barter or buy fish from a fisherman hauling his boat out on a launch ramp, or returning to his slip in a harbor, or even just some guy down the street, in nearly every community in Hawaii.
And I think that’s a good thing. Spread the wealth, share the economic benefits, reduce the carbon footprint, stop relying on indentured labor on longliners to deliver two-week-old “fresh” fish to a controlled auction that contributes to fish prices too high for many to afford and creates a rapacious demand for fish increasingly threatened by nationally subsidized over-harvesting.
There is something to be said for supporting sustainable small-boat fisheries, and fishermen in your home community, rather than big box stores and national supermarket chains that are often more concerned with the bottom line than the health of the fishery.
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