The Pacific Islander Festival here last weekend was a great success, featuring some really fantastic dancing and music, as well as crafts and artifacts from around the Pacific.  These island nations are all extremely wealthy in both cultural and natural resources, of which there were many examples over the weekend.  However, many of these nations even now have difficulty interacting with Western culture.  Having grown up in Hawaii and spent some time working in the Marshall Islands, I have a particular sympathy with those who have transplanted to the mainland US, as well as those who are struggling to maintain their cultural identity at home.  The Marshallese man I spoke with described the difficulty in getting traditional foods in the islands, which contributes to their dependence on imports.  Many seek employment on the mainland in order to improve their lives, but never save enough money to go home again.

We took the festival as an opportunity to feature some information about a fish that is farmed off of the Big Island of Hawaii, Kona Kampachi by Kona Blue.  Lately, there has been some opposition to Kona Blue from Hawaiian groups backed by Food and Water Watch (FWW), a non-profit organization concerned with the quality and safety of, well, food and water.  Basically, FWW is campaigning to have Kona Kampachi removed from Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch list of better choices.  It’s interesting that FWW lawyers are citing Kona Kampachi use of poultry protein in feed, because this measure was undertaken specifically under the direction of Rebecca Goldberg, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund.  It’s not really surprising that NGOs can’t agree on the specific metrics of sustainability, but this rift may be indicative of the fact that more groups are diverging from Monterey Bay’s wallet card advice.

I can’t help but think that FWW is using the Hawaiians to push this particular campaign, since there are a long list of Hawaiian environmental battles that would take precedence if the true aim were to clean up the state.  Hawaii is unquestionably the most progressive state in terms of marine aquaculture, and Kona Blue is a leader in establishing monitoring and management practices for open ocean farming.  The most unfortunate aspect of this is that the Hawaiians are missing the opportunity to shape the aquaculture industry in Hawaii and seize their share of it.  Whereas many terrestrial resources are already allocated, the advantage with aquaculture is that it is still in its infancy.  Shouldn’t some ocean leasing rights be given to Native Hawaiians or Hawaiian conservation groups?  Can’t we create employment, scholarships, and educational opportunities for Hawaiians out of an industry that relies on resources that originally belonged to them?