Aku | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 1, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

April Fool

April Fools’ Day, also called All Fools’ Day, in most countries is the first day of April. It received its name from the custom of playing practical jokes on this day.

Although the day has been observed for centuries, its true origins are unknown and effectively unknowable. It resembles festivals such as the Hilaria of ancient Rome, held on March 25, and the Holi celebration in India, which ends on March 31.

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563.

Because Easter was a lunar and therefore moveable date, those who clung to the old ways were the “April Fools.” Others have suggested that the timing of the day may be related to the vernal equinox (March 21), a time when people are fooled by sudden changes in the weather. (Britannica)

These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as poisson d’avril (April fish), said to symbolize a young, “easily hooked” fish and a gullible person.

Fast forward to Hawai‘i … Herschel Leib Hohenstein, aka Hal Lewis, aka J Akuhead Pupule or Aku, was the morning air personality in 1965 at KGMB, an AM station in Honolulu.

Lewis was reported to be the world’s highest-paid disc jockey, bringing in $6,000 a week when he died of cancer in 1983 at age 66.

Back in the day, you were cautioned to not ‘bite’ at the antics of Aku on April 1^st. No matter how sincere he sounded broadcasting that day, you needed to pause and reflect on the plausibility of the ‘news,’ whether it was traffic, weather or otherwise.

April 1, 1954 … Aku announced that the US Senate had not only approved Statehood for Hawaii but had also provided for an “immediate” refund of all 1953 Federal taxes to Island residents.

The announcement seemed plausible because a Hawaiian tax refund had been in the news recently when Congressman Joseph Farrington had suggested that islanders should be given a refund of all federal taxes if Hawaii wasn’t granted full statehood.

The news caused massive turmoil throughout Hawaii. Radio stations, newspapers, and the Internal Revenue Bureau were flooded with calls from people seeking more information. Many banks received calls from people who wanted to place orders for stock and bond purchases with their forthcoming refund.

The uproar was so intense that the Associated Press had to officially set the record straight, calling it “the greatest commotion in Hawaii since the Pearl Harbor attack.” The general manager of the radio station publicly apologized, going on to say that DJ Hal Lewis was fired.

Honolulans, proving they could take a joke, flooded the radio station with calls to protest the firing, only to find out later in the day that the firing and the “general manager” were all part of the joke too! (Sharon Lathan)

April 1, 1983 … the last Aku pulled; hundreds turned out to watch, with beach chairs and coolers, as Aku told them that the ‘Easter Parade’ with Magnum, PI star Tom Selleck, Gov. George Ariyoshi and many Easter Bunnies walked down Ala Moana Boulevard, turn right on Kalakaua Avenue and made their way to Kapiolani Park.

Aku played recordings of marching bands, and reporters described the floats and procession. Those lining and waiting on the street saw nothing but cars passing by. (Sigall)

Lewis died on July 21, 1983, in his Wai‘alae Iki home at the age of 66 just little more than a month after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Lewis’ substitute host, Larry Price, took over the morning drive with Michael W Perry and, like Lewis, the duo dominated the morning drive time for the next 33 years until Price retired in 2016.

Of course not a joke, on April 1, 1946 an 8.6-magnitude earthquake off the Aleutian Islands triggered a tsunami. Alaska and California were also hit with tsunami waves. (A 100-foot wave crushed a small Alaskan village, killing all five inhabitants.)

The most destructive tsunami in Hawai‘i’s modern history barreled onto island shorelines. Waves topped 50 feet. The wave that hit Hilo was at least three stories tall. And at Laupāhoehoe, a schoolhouse was hit with tsunami waves. The teacher and 25 students were killed.

By the time the waves had receded, 159 people were dead, homes, businesses and roads were destroyed, and there was a new appreciation for the sheer destructive force of tsunamis.

December 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nehu

The Hawaiʻi aku fishery (skipjack tuna) originally supplied only the local market for fresh and dried tuna. Then, the Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Ltd. cannery was established (in 1916,) enabling the fishery to expand beyond a relatively small fresh and dried market.

This near-surface schooling tuna is widely distributed across the Pacific Ocean. Historically, the pole-and-line, live bait fishery for aku boats was the largest commercial fishery in Hawaiʻi. Annual pole-and-line landings of skipjack tuna exceeded 5.5 million lb from 1937 to 1973.

The new and expanding market for canned product allowed the fishery to grow; from 1937 until the early 1980s most of the skipjack tuna landed in Hawaiʻi was canned. From the beginning, Hawaiian Tuna Packers label was Coral Tuna or Coral Hawaiian Brand Tuna.

Aku was historically the most important single commercial fish species in terms of landed weight and value in Hawai‘i, as well as throughout much of the central and western Pacific. (DBEDT)

About ninety percent of the output was shipped to the mainland; the remaining ten percent was sold in Hawaiʻi. (The cans for packing the tuna are furnished by the Dole Company.)

The Japanese technique of catching tuna with pole-and-line and live bait resembled the aku fishing method traditionally used by Hawaiians. The pole-and-line vessels mainly targeted aku.

They generally fished within a few miles of the main Hawaiian Islands, because few vessels carried ice and the catch needed to be landed within four to five hours from the time of capture.

Most of the aku catch in Hawai‘i is landed by commercial pole-and-line fishermen who induce aku to bite on feathered hooks by chumming with live bait. The live bait the aku boats used was nehu (a small anchovy).

Aku fishermen need millions of nehu. (Hollier) Nehu spawn all year long and spawning peaks in summer although this peak may shift to late winter and early spring. Nehu eggs are planktonic, and incubation is about 24 hours. Very few nehu live longer than one year. (NMFS)

Kāne‘ohe Bay, located on the Windward side of O‘ahu, served as the leading baiting ground in Hawai‘i, producing, according to statistics compiled by the Territorial Division of Fish and Game, approximately 60 per cent of the total commercial catch. (Hiatt, 1951)

The aku boat went into Kāne‘ohe Bay about sundown and anchored in the bay outside the mouth of the Kahaluu River near the old Libby’s pineapple wharf. The boat was usually anchored fore and aft, with the bow facing the mountains.

“We waited for the tide to drop and that was when the nehu came downstream into the bay. That’s when you catch them with nets. The best time was when the tide started going out around sundown or shortly after sundown.”

“We’d fill the tanks with nehu and then take the boat farther out and anchor near the reef where the waves would keep the water in the bait tanks moving constantly in and out, circulating, so the nehu were kept alive.”

“Daytime scooping was different. You worked with a surround net. I’d stay on board and the rest of the crew would go out with the motorboat and the nets and catch the nehu here and there with surround nets.”

“Then they would bring the nehu back to the boat in the motorboat and we’d scoop them into the tanks with buckets. If we didn’t have enough nehu … we would anchor in the bay that evening and drop submarine lights that night around the boat. The lights attracted the nehu? [Yo Kondo, April, 1976]

Aku fishermen spend 3-5 days catching bait for few hours fishing. (Honolulu Record) A specialized bait well in amidships allowed them to carry live nehu, as well as provide ballast for stability.

When the crew spotted a flock of seabirds – the telltale sign of a school of aku – they would chum the waters with nehu, causing a feeding frenzy. (Hana Hou)

The important thing is to have enough nehu so that with plenty of bait in the water, the tuna can be kept around the fishing boat. (Honolulu Record)

Fisherman dipped lines with a single barbless (and baitless) hook into the water. Within seconds an aku would take the hook, and with a combination of physical strength and good timing, the fisherman would jerk it up, flick it over his shoulder and onto the deck, and drop his line back into the water. (Hana Hou)

January 6, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian Tuna Packers

In lawaiʻa hi aku (fishing for aku,) “the slapping of the fish against the men’s sides and the arching of the bamboo poles as the aku bent them were like a double rainbow or the crescent shape of the moon of Hoaka.” (Maly)

A special canoe was used that served as a live bait well (malau,) it was joined by a double hulled canoe for the fishers (kaulua;) following the noio birds to the schooling aku, several canoes would form around them and the live bait released – then the lines of the bamboo fishing poles were cast. (Maly)

When the fish took the bait and broke water, the fisherman stood up straight and grasped the pole with both hands. The fish came completely out of the water and slapped against the side of the fisherman, who then shoved the aku forward in the canoe and cast again. (Maly)

In 1899, Gorokichi Nakasugi, a Japanese shipwright, brought a traditional Japanese sailing vessel, called a sampan, to Hawai‘i, and this led to a unique class of vessels and distinctive maritime culture associated with the rise of the commercial fishing industry in Hawai‘i. (Cultural Surveys)

The Japanese technique of catching tuna with pole-and-line and live bait resembled the aku fishing method traditionally used by Hawaiians. The pole-and-line vessels mainly targeted skipjack tuna (aku.)

In the modern fleet, with an average length of 75- to 90-feet, these boats were the largest of the sampans. The pole-and-line fleet generally fished within a few miles of the main Hawaiian Islands, because few vessels carried ice and the catch needed to be landed within four to five hours from the time of capture.

The modern fishing method used live bait thrown from a fishing vessel to stimulate a surface school into a feeding frenzy. Fishing was then conducted frantically to take advantage of the limited time the school remains near the boat.

The pole and line were about 10-feet and used a barbless hook with feather skirts which is slapped against the water until a fish strikes. Then the fish is yanked into the vessel in one motion. The fish unhooks when the line is slacked so that the process can be repeated.

On a pole-and-line vessel a fisherman was required to learn how to cast the line, jerk the fish out of the water, catch the tuna under his left arm, snap the barbless hook out, slide the fish into the hold and cast the line back out – all in rapid succession.

The fishery was dependent on having sufficient bait fish, nehu (Hawaiian anchovy;) a lot of the bait fish, came from Kāneʻohe Bay. Dozens of aku boats would set their nets in the Bay’s shallows; the pier at Heʻeia Kea Boat Harbor was homeport for more than 20 of them.

Initially, most sampans docked in Honolulu Harbor. In the 1920s, Kewalo Basin was constructed and by the 1930s was the main berthing area for the sampan fleet and also the site of the tuna cannery, fish auction, shipyard, ice plant, fuel dock and other shore-side facilities.

The Hawaiʻi skipjack tuna fishery originally supplied only the local market for fresh and dried tuna. Then, the Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Ltd. cannery was established (in 1916,) enabling the fishery to expand beyond a relatively small fresh and dried market.

Six sampans made up the cannery’s initial fleet. The fleet grew and before WWII the fishery included up to 26 vessels. Following the war, as new vessels were built, fleet size increased to a maximum of 32 vessels in 1948.

These vessels carried crews of 7-9 fishermen, and frequently worked 6 days a week. It was hard work and the fishing day may begin with catching bait fish at dawn, followed by fishing to dusk.

Historically, the pole-and-line, live bait fishery for skipjack tuna (aku) was the largest commercial fishery in Hawaiʻi. Annual pole-and-line landings of skipjack tuna exceeded 5.5 million lb from 1937 to 1973.

The new and expanding market for canned product allowed the fishery to grow; from 1937 until the early 1980s most of the skipjack tuna landed in Hawaiʻi was canned.

F Walter Macfarlane opened the Macfarlane Tuna Company at Ala Moana and Cooke street. By 1922, after having changed hands a couple times, the company was incorporated by local stockholders as Hawaiian Tuna Packers Ltd.

Around 1928, tuna processing started in Kewalo Basin. Nearby was the Kewalo Shipyard that serviced and repaired the local aku boats. They also had an ice house.

From the beginning, Hawaiian Tuna Packers label was Coral Tuna or Coral Hawaiian Brand Tuna.

By the 1930s, the Honolulu cannery employed 500 and produced nearly ten-million cans of tuna per year. For several years Hawaiian Tuna Packers also operated a smaller cannery in Hilo.

About ninety percent of the output was shipped to the mainland; the remaining ten percent was sold in Hawaiʻi. (The cans for packing the tuna are furnished by the Dole Company.)

Fishing stopped during WWII because the larger sampans were used by the military for patrol duties and the Japanese fishermen were not allowed to go to sea. (Wilson)

With the entry of the United States in the Second World War came the imposition of area and time restrictions on fishing activities in Hawai’i that virtually eliminated offshore harvesting operations. Many fishing boats were requisitioned by the Army or Navy. (Schug)

The tuna cannery was converted into a plant for the assembly of airplane auxiliary fuel tanks and the shipyard was converted to the maintenance of military craft. Hawaiʻi’s fishing industry was forever changed. (Schug)

In 1960, Castle & Cooke bought out Hawaiian Tuna Packers and made it a part of Bumble Bee Seafoods out of the northwest. They operated the cannery until late-1984, when it ultimately closed.