What’s Up With Mullet
Longtime fisher Dexter Egdamin asked a question at a recent Hawai‘i County Game Management Advisory Commission: What happened to the mullet at Wailoa Pond in Hilo?
For that matter, what’s the status of our native mullet statewide? A good look at mullet stocks is found in an article by Grace Cajski, a Pulitzer Center reporting fellow from Yale University, which was published in Honolulu Civil Beat. “Innovations In Ancient Aquaculture Could Bring Striped Mullet Back To The Dinner Table” appeared in October. Records show that in 1900, fishermen sold more than 700,000 lbs of striped mullet. In 1950, fewer than 40,000 pounds of adult mullet—also known as ‘ama‘ama—were caught in Hawai‘i. In 2019, reported ‘ama‘ama sales shrank to 1,660 lbs.
Hawai‘i has three species of mullet. The ‘ama‘ama and uouoa are native, while the kanda or Marquesan/Australian mullet is invasive. According to a post from 2019, kanda were accidentally introduced to Hawai‘i between 1955 and 1959 with eight shipments of Marquesan sardines, Sardinella marquesensis, from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands.“All kanda shipments were released around O‘ahu at Barbers Point, Hanauma Bay, ‘Ewa Beach, Pōka‘i Bay, and Maunalua Bay,” the blog noted. In the years since, kanda have migrated and are now found throughout the state. Kanda are feared to be taking habitat from native mullet. Smaller than the natives, they have larger scales and feel rough to
