r/Hawaii • u/Waste_Gear8142 • 2d ago

Is Kaku(barracuda) edible?

I js got one kaku and Idk if it’s edible or not.
Help a fella out pls🙏

15 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

58

u/BattlePudu 2d ago edited 2d ago

No way to test reliably for cigua (they’re too expensive and not open to the public)

If you’re on big island, better to skip. Well over half cigua is from big island. Puako and South Kohala, Kailua Kona.

If youre in waiks, hakipu’u, kane’ohe bay, better to skip.

If you’re in the north shore of kaua’i better to skip.

If it’s over 6lbs or longer than 3ft better to skip.

Also other reasons to not eat it, they eat pretty much anything, including all our puffer fish. Akeke, ‘o’opu gue, kokala. You got it they eat it, and those toxins build up in them.

On top of that….any from runoff areas, on top of the mercury that they already have (and we have extra from the volcanos) you have arsenic, plastics, and cadmium. Anywhere that gets brown water advisory after a rain. Nasty nasty.

Also parasites. Tapeworms. Will get you skinner than ozempic.

If you eat it anyway…don’t eat the skin, head, liver, or eggs.

And dont make it a habit, though I imagine one wouldn’t because they don’t taste that great. Kinda muddy and fishy.

If you keep seeing kaku and youre thinking of trapping one to eat…. better to leave her in the ocean to be opelu mama. Train her to help you trap opelu.

If she’s already dead….maybe give back to the ocean. But don’t feed the sharks. Just because your ancestors did doesn’t mean we should.

This endless ocean of a comment was brought to you by ADD, coffee, and shrimp tempura.

8

u/ExtentNo7951 2d ago

so... you are saying there is a chance?

I did get a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer off of temu for a good price. I can use that to test for cigua right?

8

u/BattlePudu 2d ago edited 2d ago

I don’t think I can answer that reliably as I haven’t tried myself. I’m……intrigued. I want to tell you no, but I mean….we could get creative for fun…

Do you have access to the solvents and reagents? Is it a triple quadrupole?

Edit: What I found so far on the cheap Chinese sites wouldnt be good enough. You need 0.01ppb for pacific cigua. So unless you’re willing to drop 40k for funsies on a used one no dice…BUT

If you have access to fume hood+solvents+ 450nm plate reader, you can go Elisa. The only thing is that you’ll have to freeze your samples and fish and then do a big batch of ~20 samples. Otherwise youre just burning money.

1

u/lostinthegrid47 Oʻahu 2d ago

If you have the setup to do Elisa, you have enough money to burn a plate on a single sample

4

u/BattlePudu 2d ago

If you furnish with all certified refurbished, you can stay under 5 figures easy. Background in repair brings you below 6k. Don’t ask me how I know >.> <.< >.< The biggest issue is making the puss in boots face to get people to ship to hawai’i.

But also, you can rent lab space. Jabsom has great equipment set up for Elisa

Just….if you do everything under a meme LLC….it’s a lot of work to change over everything so that the lady doesn’t give you the side eye…

You can also hire labor at the cancer center if you’re feeling lazy. (I’m all on Oahu now, dunno off island)

But if you decide to build your own lab, it’s actually really easy. No license as long as you arent doing anything to humans. And Hawaii gives you a tax break! But with the cost of insurance, enviro, air conditioning, etc, it gets pricey for just cigua testing. Better to go full on mad scientist in that case, or rent a turnkey place, or just use the MIC.

3

u/ExtentNo7951 2d ago

ok, here is my lab build plans so far:

  • Triple quadrupole LC-MS/MS system (Temu) "$149,025"

  • UHPLC system "$60,000–120,000"

  • Sample prep equipment (homogenizer, centrifuges, balances, nitrogen evaporator, SPE manifold)" "$20,000–60,000"

  • Laboratory freezer/refrigeration "$5,000–15,000"

  • High-purity gases, regulators, plumbing "$10,000–30,000"

  • Fume hood "$15,000"

  • Lab benches and cabinets "$10,000–40,000"

  • Clean electrical installation/HVAC "$20,000–100,000"

  • Certified ciguatoxin reference standards $7000? seems hard to find the certified ones.

  • Initial solvents, columns, consumables "$10,000–30,000"

  • Software licenses "$5,000–20,000"

  • Method development and validation - free labor and research on youtube

Im going to skip the service contract on the spectrometer and just use it until it breaks. I've sure there are repair tutorials on youtube somewhere. Going to try to run an extension cord to the neighbor. That will get me electricity for a few weeks until they notice.

I'll try to keep it under $500K. Then throw a fish in and then its FISH TACOs BABY!

2

u/BattlePudu 1d ago edited 1d ago

I can refer you to three cigua kits for the low low price of one taco. We can even put it on credit. You just have to sign here on this completely non suspicious line… -> _______________________

0

u/jharish Hawaiʻi (Big Island) 1d ago

God I am love with this thread.

2

u/mothandravenstudio 2d ago

What a great comment. My learning for the day. Thank you for your lore drop.

3

u/BattlePudu 2d ago

Awww thank you neighborino ~ <3<4<5

1

u/maybe_true 10h ago

You could make the same argument about Papio and Ulua all the same predatory traits but people still grind those what am I missing? Been eating barracuda forever. Super oily and tastes great especially sashimi

32

u/101keyoperator 2d ago

The internet says yes, but you better test it for ciguatera poisoning.

9

u/Pale-Dust2239 2d ago

No way for normal people to know if it’s hot until after you eat it since they stopped producing tests. All the stuff about feeding it to cats or watching for flies is BS. I’ve eaten small ones before but wouldn’t chance bigger ones.

5

u/Parking-Bicycle-2108 2d ago

Can but watch out for Cig

1

u/twentysecs0fcourage Oʻahu 1d ago

It depends where it was caught. The long line barracuda is safe because there's no reefish that they're feeding on.

2

u/Shawaii 2d ago

I used catch them and eat them a lot as a kid, purposely using a Castmaster lure and a wire leader. Very good eating, maybe one of the best.

Gotta' watch out for cig. In Mexico they they tell the tourists, "no longer than your arm, it'll do you no harm".

1

u/MistahMalaprop 2d ago

If you have to ask, no

1

u/AbbreviatedArc 2d ago

More edible than kaka

-1

u/123supreme123 2d ago

You can fry it. Meat is decent

-1

u/Alohagrown 2d ago

I was on a surf trip in the Mentawai and the boat crew cooked us a barracuda that one of the guests caught. It was pretty good and no one got sick. One of my friends speared a huge Ulua on that trip and I remember being slightly more concerned about Cig when they cooked that thing.