Steamed mullet, grilled opelu, ahi poke: local seafood is delicious. It constitutes 51 percent of all the seafood eaten in the state of Hawaiʻi. On average, individuals in Hawaiʻi consume almost 19 pounds of local seafood every year, the equivalent of nearly 50 tuna steaks. In a state that imports 90 percent of its food, local seafood represents a source of hope for food sovereignty and a potential for self-sufficiency. It is also a means of connecting with the environment and with each other.
And yet, what if that environment is unhealthy? By UNESCO’s estimates, there are between 50 and 75 trillion pieces of plastic, including microplastics, in our ocean, and this number is rising at a rate of 8 to 10 million metric tons per year. Scientists also predict that 80 percent of inorganic mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants, burning of municipal waste, and factories, ends up in the ocean and accumulates in fish as the neurotoxic compound methylmercury. A recent study found that as climate change fuels ocean warming, and as humans overfish the seas, the marine predators that we eat—like tuna and swordfish—will contain increasingly more methylmercury. Other land-based contaminants, like copper, arsenic, lead, pesticides, and carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are being introduced to the ocean through climate disasters.
As the ocean becomes contaminated, seafood could turn from a healthy protein source to a toxic one. Colin Nakagawa, the owner of Seaside Restaurant in Hilo, which has a loko iʻa (Hawaiian fishpond), is not concerned by the state of local seafood right now. “But for the future generations that do serve top restaurants and fresh seafood, it’s gonna be a challenge for them, I think, in the next few decades,” he said.
Experts forecast that for fishers and consumers, education and knowledge are, and will continue to be the best approach for consuming seafood safely.
Dr. Tim Grabowski, the unit leader of the Hawaiʻi Cooperative Fishery Research Unit at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, noted that for consumers, “there are certainly some species that have a reputation for being hot. Roi has had a reputation of being hot with ciguatera, and depending on the location, we are looking at anywhere from 25-30 percent of the roi we pulled up having detectable levels of ciguatoxin.”
Dr. Eileen Nalley, a fisheries extension specialist with the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, explained that pollutants and toxins can accumulate in fatty tissues, so avoiding those areas reduces risk. “If you eat the head or the belly fat of a fish, you’re more likely to be exposed to some pollutants, and you’re more likely to be exposed to ciguatoxins.” Sticking to filets is one way to reduce that risk, she continued.
To further reduce risk, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health recommends avoiding certain fish and limiting intake of others, and emphasizes that people shouldn’t stop eating fish outright. Seafood risk is often place-based and nuanced: factors vary the risk level, like what fish species people consume, and how much, at what frequency, and from what place. Consumer factors also vary risk level, including being pregnant, having a weakened immune system, being older, and being a child.
“In addition to understanding people, we also need to understand local ecology. In the Pacific, research on both of these topics is largely lacking,” said Dr. Catherine Pirkle, a global health researcher in the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. “There is no single message to prevent or reduce risk.”
Many experts in the field emphasize that today’s seafood health risks are symptoms of global, systemic forces. “A lot of issues related to coral reef conservation are happening at scales that are beyond the scope of what local communities acting alone could influence,” said Dr. Grabowski.
If the state of the ocean today is the result of iterative harm across many years and a global population, perhaps restoration of a future healthy ocean will also materialize that way, one positive project at a time. Many examples can be found in place-based organizations across Hawaiʻi that are restoring the state’s lands and waterways through bioremediation. Mālama Puʻuloa, for example, is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Puʻuloa (the Pearl Harbor area of Oʻahu), which includes an active Superfund site. In 2023, 18,000 people worked with Mālama Puʻuloa to reclaim and restore the area’s urban riparian (riverbank) zones by removing invasive plant species and restoring native vegetation.
“It’s community-driven change,” said Sandy Ward, the program’s former executive director. It is change that is educational, part of a cycle of teaching and learning. As Ward put it, this change can only come from “being in the water, being in the streams, being in the fishponds, and getting people on ʻāina (land).” It’s change that is driven by ʻike ʻāina, knowledge of the land.
Our new seafood future could be healthy. In the meantime, it’s a task for people to contribute to the work while being aware of how to stay healthy themselves. “We’re in the recovery phase,” Ward said. “It’s being safe for now, while we clean up, while we remediate, while we restore.”
Being safe for now includes following the advice of scientists and public health experts who are continuously researching and discovering new knowledge. Organizations like the Hawaiʻi Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, the Grabowski Lab, and Mālama Puʻuloa are ensuring we can do both—eat informedly, and restore—in order to build a healthy seafood future while safely enjoying seafood today.
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