Fish, it’s what’s for lunch. Or at least that will be the case for community members attending the final hours of the Eat the Invaders Fishing Tournament, presented by the nonprofit Mālama Maunalua in collaboration with Local Iʻa and Chef Hui, at Kuliʻouʻou Beach Park on Sunday, March 1.
The tournament brings fishers to Maunalua Bay to see which team can collect the most fish between Friday, Feb. 27, and Sunday, March 1. In this case, the targeted fish for the tournament are three invasive species: taʻape, toʻau, and roi.
On the final day of the contest, fishers will present their catches between 10 a.m. and noon for weigh in. Then, between noon and 2 p.m., chefs from Local Iʻa and Chef Hui will serve up food using the fish caught during the contest. The event is free and open to the public.
“That's the important part of this is that chefs can then connect that invasive species to being a form of sustainable seafood through their creations,” said Kawai Hong, who is coordinating the event and is the Fisheries Management Area coordinator for Mālama Maunalua. “We're going to have Ashley Watts from Local Iʻa, that's a fish market in Kaimukī ... and so she's in there frying fish plates for the community. Then Chef Hui has brought Chef Eric Oto, and he is going to be making a Peruvian style ceviche. And we're also going to be having smoked taʻape dip for people to try.”
The event is free and open to the public.
This is the first time the Eat the Invaders tournament is coming to Maunalua Bay, he added. The inaugural Eat the Invaders tournament was held at Heʻeia Pier in July of 2025.
“Part of the reason why we wanted to have this tournament is to utilize it as an outreach tool to bring fishers to Maunalua Bay — fishers from all over the island,” he said.
Almost 200 fishers are participating in the upcoming tournament, Hong said.
Last year, Maunalua Bay was designated as a new Fisheries Management Area by the Board of Land and Natural Resources and this event helps share the new rules for fishing in Maunalua Bay, which include no nighttime spearfishing and no taking of five species: ʻalakuma (7-11 crab), horned helmet, Triton’s trumpet, ula (spiny lobster) and ula pāpapa (slipper lobster).
“The Fisheries Management Area – what's so unique about that is it was actually proposed by fishermen over a decade ago,” Hong said. “And within the last eight years, there's been hundreds of meetings to establish this Fisheries Management Area.”
The weigh-in and fish fry event on Sunday, March 1, will also include informational booths.
“There's 18 different outreach partners that will be there that are doing restoration and really good work in the Maunalua region, as well as a Gyotaku fish printing station, which is what I personally am really excited about, because one of my good friends, Naoki — he's well known within the community as a Gyotaku artist — he's going to help us along with tournament staff to Gyotaku fish print some shirts for the community.”
Community members are asked to bring blank T-shirts that are white or grey so they can make Gyotaku fish prints. There will be a limited supply of materials for keiki.
“They can bring a shirt,” Hong said. “They can bring a pillow case. They can bring a tote bag — anything that they're interested in printing.”
Community members can also earn prizes just for showing up.
“Anyone who's interested can come by and check it out,” Hong said. “Everyone who attends will get a giveaway ticket just for attending, and there's gonna be a lot of really great prizes for community. And then on top of that, we're gonna have the fisher prizes for all of the fishers in the tournament.”
Prizes for the fishers include spear guns, new rods and reels, coolers, custom dive knifes and more, he said.
“We got a lot of really cool stuff,” he said.
Learn more about the tournament and get the full schedule of events.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
