Bigeyes are known in Hawai‘i as “aweoweo” which means “glowing red.” It is a red fish that comes out of hiding at dark, one of two night red fish that are good eating. The young aweoweo are called “alalaua” or
Bigeyes are known in Hawai‘i as “aweoweo” which means “glowing red.” It is a red fish that comes out of hiding at dark, one of two night red fish that are good eating.
The young aweoweo are called “alalaua” or “alalauwa.” There have been at least three blooms of these young in my lifetime at Nawiliwili. The last two times were in 1965 and in 2002.
These fish appear at dark off the piers at Nawiliwili. They are about two inches in length and are attracted by lights and hooked with shrimp for bait. They are usually cooked by frying them crisp and eaten while still hot.
Whole families came down to the piers and took their seats at the edge of the pier and the whole family would fish. People came from Puhi, Lihu‘e, Hanama‘ulu and even Kapa‘a; in fact, the aweoweo also went into the canals of Kapa‘a.
If a bloom should appear today, I don’t think our state government would open up the piers like they did in the ‘40s and ‘50s.
In Hawai‘i, it is said that the appearance of “aweoweo” is a warning that an “Ali‘i” or someone of “Royal Blood” is dying or had recently died. In January of 1891 about the time King David Kalakaua died in San Francisco, the entire Pu’u Loa (Pearl Harbor) was “glowing red” with aweoweo.
The adult fish will grow to almost a foot in length and can be caught with a hook and line where the bottom is rocky. Their scales are very small as compared with other red fish like the “u’u” (soldier fish) or “menpachi” it’s a deeper red and has fairly large scales and is more highly prized for food than the aweoweo.
Moi (pacific threadfin) was a fish that was “kapu”, it was only for the King and a commoner would be killed if he was caught eating one. The Hawaiian word “moi” also signified a variety of taro and a variety of sweet potato. Large schools were said to fortell disaster for “ali‘i” or chiefs.
Moi li‘i, baby moi of about four inches was another juvenile fish that we caught with a pole, hook and line at the water’s edge along the beaches, mostly in July and August. This was another family affair. The state finally placed a limit of 25 fish per person per day on the catch. So everyone would be fishing until the entire ‘ohana caught their limit.
As is always the case, the greedy ones would surround the school of moi li‘i with a fine mesh net (completely illegal) and wipe out the school before the eyes of the hook and line fishermen. These people would send the catch to their cars and go home with the catch.
The netters would go looking for more schools to net. They always had a “kilo” (watchman) looking for the game wardens and were very seldom caught.
I don’t remember what year it was but a Honolulu group had a large fishing boat and worked out of Honolulu using a spotter plane. The plane would fly around Kaua‘i looking for schools of fish. This plane found a school of fish in Pakala Bay on the Westside of Kaua‘i and called the boat to surround it. The school of fish turned out to be a school of moi. After surrounding the fish and icing it down, there was quite a bit that they didn’t have ice or space for it so they sold the left over’s here on Kaua‘i.
I bought a few for my family and all the females were heavy laden with eggs ready to spawn. We heard later that the school was over four tons of fish and later from throw net fishermen all the way to Hanalei that there were very few moi in those waters for about seven or eight years, “auwe.”
“Oama” are young “Weke” (goat fish) about three or four inches usually appear in late summer or early fall in the shallow water along beaches especially inside the reef. They are caught with a hook and line setup as the moi li‘i. The legal limit is also twenty-five fish per person. They are just as vulnerable to the netters as the moi li‘i. In the old days the “kilo” would have to climb a hill or a tree to spot the schools of fish.
Today they use planes to spot the fish and direct the netters where to go, and when to drop their nets. It’s no wonder that there aren’t as many fish as in the old days, “auwe”!
