Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 1997 — Fishing to make a living, two fishers' dream becomes a reality [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Fishing to make a living, two fishers' dream becomes a reality

by Kelli Meskin

WDuld you gamble everything you had for the love of fishing? Mieheala Lee, and Calton Kam did. Together they've started 'Oihana Lawai'a, a fishing business that specializes in making and repairing throw nets and gill nets, crab and lobster nets. Lee and Kam don't really have to gamble everything, they just need to play their cards right. Both Lee and Kam were taught the secrets of the oeean by their grandparents when they were growing up. They have incorporated everything they know into their business whieh they opened last October. "My grandfather taught me how to respect the oeean, look for fish, play the tides and how to sur-

jf vive on my own," Lee said. Lee, who's from Keaukaha on the Big ■ Island, likes to go night diving in the early I morning while the fish sleep. "I love diving; that's my sport,"she said. Her grandfather taught her how to dive | with a Hawaiian sling. The sling resembles a three-prong metal spear, but it only has one 1 prong and is made with bamboo. Her fiancē gets jealous of the time she spends fishing, she says, when she tells him she'll be back in a few hours but ends up coming home eight hours later. Kam was raised on O'ahu, fishing off Sand Island. He started fishine with a bamboo oole off

the piers with his grandfather. "In those days had lots of fish, weke, mullet, awaawa..." he said. "You didn't have to look for squid, it would just swim by, look at you and you poke it." Now, there are not so many fish anymore since the reef runway was built, Kam says, because the runway filled in the path the fish took to Sand Island. "Fish have roads just like we do," he said. Kam has had many jobs related to fishing, and was a guest onee on Harry Kojima's show "Let's Go Fishing," but this is the first time he has owned a fishing supply business. He and Lee expect business to piek up this summer and when tax return season begins.

"I think we're gonna get it going. . . , but it's gonna take time." he said. Their clients are referred to them through fishing " supply stores and close friends, and they sell their nets at the swap meet. Lee says she would like to return to the Big Island someday to open a fishing store. "I always wanted to open my own fishing business," she said. "That's why I don't have kids yet, I want to be set first." Kam and Lee also market the fish they catch, and sell mini throw nets to hang as mirror ornaments and key chains. Making and repairing throw and gill nets are their main specialty. 'Oihana Lawai'a's cost for a net repair job is $10 -20 dollars under the store cost, Lee said. A gill net is a net that catches fish by their gills when they swim through the eye holes. Fish get caught in a throw net the same way but there is also a pocket along the edge of the net to scoop up the fish when it is pulled up. Lee ean sew a throw net in a day and a half . Sewing a throw or gill net takes a lot of patience. "If you ean tie a knot, you ean sew net," she said. Kam will fish in any kind of weather. When hurricane 'Iwa was swelling up on the islands in 1982, Kam was on a boat at sea. He said he knew the hurrieane was coming. "I just toōk the ehanee and went anyway," he said. He filled up his cooler with fish and rushed back in time to tie his boat down and get home safely. For Kam and Lee fishing for a living is fun - everything else is work.

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