Iʻa Kū—Schooling Fish
Cover Image: Masthead of Ka Hoku o Hawaii, printed on November 10, 1943.
Aloha Nūhou Monday!
Iʻa kū (schooling or running fish) is one of the topics covered under local news. The reports come from all over the archipelago describing which fish is running in what particular area. Some reports are just a few lines long, while others are much more detailed.
Image: “He opelu ka i-a ku…” Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, November 29, 1881, p. 1
ʻŌpelu is what is running at Waiheʻe these days there.
Image: “…Ma Milolii ka maua pule i ka Sabati.” Excerpt from “Kou Maua La,” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, November 10, 1943, p. 1
We are scheduled to worship at Miloliʻi this Sabbath. We were accompanied by Mrs. Alice Ackerman, her mother Mrs. Kaolulo, and her son Howard. We left Kealakekua Friday afternoon and reached Miloliʻi that evening. We stayed with that brethren Mrs. Sarah Kahiwa Kalua, the schoolteacher of Miloliʻi.
Then on Saturday, we went to set net with Eugene Kaupiko, Mrs. Kalua, Mrs. Kaolulo, Mrs. Apo, and her daughter, and Mrs. Nahinu, Abbie Kaupiko, and a whole bunch of children. The place the net was set was a cove, and hahalalū was the fish. The children were the kāpeku.1 One of them looked like a little baby to me, but they all swam in the deep. At one point the fish rose up in very shallow water, and the children walked and shoo the fish into the net. They swam from where the ocean was deep. Some of the children got on the canoe. One child dove beneath the net and when he got back up, he held a fish in one hand, and he held another in his mouth. With just a single setting of the net, one’s craving for fish was greatly satisfied. What I regret is that I didn’t take a picture of them.
Image: ‘Opelu drying in the yard of Kaluaihalawa, at Miloliʻi, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi. SP 1114511
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Image: “Nui ka ia ku ma Kaawaloa…” Ka Makaainana, March 5, 1894, p. 1. (Digitized from microfilm.)
According to a letter on the 1st from a friend, there were a lot of fish running these past nights at Kaʻawaloa, South Kona, Hawaiʻi: the ʻuwīʻuwī and the ʻaha. The horses were laden and the Portuguese children in the uplands of that place can survive off of it.
Molokaʻi’s people netted a lot of akule at Honouli, and the Lahaina fish market was partially supplied with the akule, and sent on the Maunakea of this past Saturday was 10,000 akule for Honolulu’s market.
Image: Juliette M. Atherton. Hahalalu (detail). Watercolor and pencil on paper. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 972617
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Image: “Puni Lawaia,” Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, May 22, 1875, p. 2.
A fondness for fishing.—On the bright moonlit night of this Tuesday, the King went ‘upapalu fishing outside of the lagoon of Kuloloia. Later perhaps there was a feasting on ‘upapalu.
This post is part of He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers, a partnership between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu with assistance from Kamehameha Schools. Mahalo nui loa to Hawaii Tourism Authority for their support. Learn more about this project here.
