Page 4 - MidWeek Kauai - August 3, 2022

4 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK AUGUST 3, 2022
STORY BY
W hoever said that nothing good ever happens af- ter midnight has never hung out at Pier 38 during the ear- ly morning hours. That’s the time when a number of commercial longline fishing boats begin pulling into Honolulu Harbor with crews eager to unload their sizable catch
from waters around the Hawaiian Islands do they bring into port? Tens of thousands of pounds of bigeye and yellowfin tuna (‘ahi), striped marlin, mahimahi, pink snapper (‘ōpakapaka), wahoo (ono) and more. Once offloaded, these bounties of the sea are inspected, weighed, tagged and displayed on pallets for a number of buyers, in- cluding chefs, who congregate at the pier’s “fishing village” shortly
PHOTO BY
Bill Mossman
Anthony Consillio
Michael Goto, who’s managed the Honolulu Fish Auction for the past decade, calls out prices as seafood buyers inspect the day’s catch and place their bids. PHOTO COURTESY UNITED FISHING AGENCY LTD.
manager Michael Goto. It’s a role he’s held for the past decade and one that he takes particular pride in, in part because he understands all the good that the local seafood business does for the islands.
for anyone present to see.
And what good things harvested
“The commercial fishing industry is the largest food producer in the state,” says Goto, who also serves as assistant vice president of United Fishing Agency, the entity that runs the auction and is celebrating its 70th year in business. “We’re really 80%-90% of the local production of food in the state, so if we’re talking about food security, we’re the most important industry.
before 5:30 a.m. for another very good thing: the only large-scale commercial auction staged be-
tween Tokyo and Maine. Supervising all of this activity
al brass bell — the signal that an- nounces the start of each day’s bid- ding — is Honolulu Fish Auction
Naturally, the auction — which is modeled after the former Tsukiji Market auction in Tokyo, where fish were sold individually rather than by the boatload to wholesalers — plays an essential part of the pro-
while waiting to ring the tradition-
SEE PAGE 5
“Fresh fish is not only a cultural staple here,” he adds, “it’s also an economic necessity.”
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