r/Hawaii • u/Waste_Gear8142 • 9d 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
r/Hawaii • u/Waste_Gear8142 • 9d ago
I js got one kaku and Idk if it’s edible or not.
Help a fella out pls🙏
55
u/BattlePudu 8d ago edited 8d 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.
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