Kona Blue Water Farms Disregards Native Hawaiian Rights
2009-06-06
Kona Blue Water Farms Disregards Native Hawaiian Rights
Hawaiian Native Representative and Food & Water Watch Urge Removal of Kona Kampachi Fish from Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Card
Monterey Bay, California - Today, Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, joined with Hawaii’s Kanaka Council, a coalition comprised of Native Hawaiian rights groups, in urging Monterey Bay Aquarium to remove U.S. farmed yellowtail or “Kona Kampachi” as a “Good Alternative” from the aquarium’s Seafood Watch Card. Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney, Zach Corrigan, and Kanaka Council Moku O Keawe Representative, Kale Gumapac, delivered a letter to the Aquarium signed by six other native Hawaiian leaders that states Kona Blue Water Farms, the only U.S. producer of farmed U.S. yellowtail, ignores native Hawaiian rights and negatively impacts the environment and cultural traditions in Hawaii. Monterey Bay Aquarium should therefore not label Kona’s product, marketed as “Kona Kampachi,” as a sustainable seafood choice.
“Kona Blue Water Farms intentionally disregards Na Po’e Kanaka practitioners of ahupua’a and Konohiki rights,” states Gumapac in the letter. “Kona Blue Water Farms only generates benefits for its own corporation, and has shown a contempt and disrespect to our inherent cultural, traditional, religious and customary practices of Na Po’e Kanaka (Native Hawaiian people).”
According to the letter, Native Hawaiians were not adequately involved or consulted in the decision-making process when Kona Blue Water Farms was determining the site location of its facility, located in a traditional fishing area directly off the coast of Kailua-Kona. In addition to disrupting this site, the cages act as fish aggregating devices– altering natural fish behaviors and luring them from fishing areas. In November 2005, the company killed a tiger shark, a sacred animal for many Native Hawaiians, which was attracted to the fish in the cages.
The Council also cites negative environmental impacts as a main concern – one shared by Food & Water Watch. Food & Water Watch struggles with Kona’s Kampachi being touted as “sustainable,” as the feed that Kona Blue is using contains both forage fish and chicken byproducts, and when sold, the majority of the fish are shipped thousands of miles to the mainland. Further, the cages may be changing the ecology of the area surrounding the facility.
“We recognize Monterey Bay Aquarium’s important role in educating the public about sustainable seafood choices and we urge the aquarium not to be duped into believing Kona Kampachi is sustainable and worthy of their stamp of approval,” said Zach Corrigan, Food & Water Watch staff attorney. “We urge Monterey Bay Aquarium to remove the controversial Kona Kampachi from its list of sustainable seafood.”
Both Food & Water Watch and the Kanaka Council delivered the letter to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today, during the Aquarium’s World Ocean Day celebration. This is the first year World Ocean Day has been officially recognized by the United Nations, with the theme “Our Oceans, Our Responsibility.”
“It is our ‘kuleana’ (responsibility) is to protect resources from mauka (mountain) to makai (ocean) for today and tomorrow,” concluded Gumapac.
To view the Kanaka Council Moku O Keawe letter, please visit: Kanaka Council letter to Monterey Bay Aquarium
Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization based in Washington, D.C., works to ensure clean water and safe food in the United States and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.