A program in Hawaii is trying to increase food security and reduce food waste by using every part of the fish, from bone marrow to blood lines—even making the skin into leather!
Dive In with NOAA Fisheries |
Pacific Islands
Fresh-caught taʻape on ice. Credit: Conservation International Hawaiʻi.
Food insecurity, or the lack of access to nutritious food, is a challenge for many communities, including islanders. Hawaiians import more than 90 percent of the food (and roughly half of the seafood) they eat, even though they’re surrounded by ocean.
Chef Mark Oyama’s sautéed taʻape with pork hash and black bean sauce. Credit: Conservation International Hawaiʻi.
Conservation International Hawaii, a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant recipient, is strengthening local connections to reduce their reliance on global supply chains by focusing on sustainable local seafood.
We speak with Jhana Young, the sustainable Seafood Senior manager at Conservation International Hawaii. One of the challenges they are tackling is invasive species, which compete with local species for resources and prey on species that don’t have natural defenses against them. One of these invasive species is a fish called ta’ape. Young describes the program, which encourages locals to eat ta’ape—improving food security and reducing the number of invasive species impacting the ecosystem. They’re also trying to reduce the amount of fish parts that are discarded—like bones, heads, and tails—by creating new recipes, and even making leather out of fish skins.