KONA BLUE WATER FARMS Kona Blue Water Farms welcomed its initial harvest of its new fish -- Kona Kampachi.

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Healthy Kona Kampachi
is grown in ocean cages

If Kona Kampachi were a new author or a first-time recording artist, this would be some roll-out: Energetic marketing campaign, press appearances, invitations to the best restaurants for dinner.

Mr. Kampachi being a fish, though, dinner is him, so he may not feel all that lucky. But the point remains -- the public-relations offensive being mounted on behalf of Mr. Kampachi is quite impressive.

Kona Blue Water Farms heralded its initial harvests last week at an outdoor party at which invited guests were treated to tastings of Kona Blue's new fish with its trademarked name, grown in ocean cages directly offshore from the Kona Airport.

Accompanying Kona Kampachi's debut was a slick publicity kit -- more than two-dozen pages of color photos, testimonials, recipes and background information on the fish and the company players.

One word that's not in there: kahala.

The unfortunate kahala is a deep-water fish that in the wild is prone to the ciguatera toxin, which causes serious illness in humans. Kona Kampachi grew from kahala broodstock, but the fish's dangerous tendencies have been farmed out of it.

"It's like comparing a wild chicken to a Foster Farms chicken," Kona Blue President Neil Anthony Sims said.

The Adam and Eve fish in this case were wild kahala, caught in deep waters off Keahole Point. Those original fish spawned in tanks on land, the fingerlings grew to maturity and spawned again. "So we have fully closed the life cycle," Sims said.

A fish picks up ciguatera through what it eats. "Because we control the food in our fish all the way from hatchery to harvest, we know we don't have the problem of ciguatera."

COURTESY OF DAVID O. BALDWIN Kona Blue Water Farms shared its harvest of its Kona Kampachi at an outdoor party last week.

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Sims said the company avoids bringing up "the wild fish," and instead focuses on its quality -- it's a premium, sashimi-grade fish -- and its close family relationship to a fish with a much better reputation, Japanese hamachi. Kona Kampachi also has a higher fat content than kahala, fat in this case being a good thing -- better for flavor, and also it's the good Omega-3 type.

OK, so the ciguatera question put to rest, let's talk names: hamachi, kampachi and hiramasa are all related fish, revered in Japan for sushi and sashimi. Their close cousin in Hawaii is kahala -- English name, amberjack. Hamachi is sometimes called yellowtail, not to be confused with yellowfin, which is a tuna and not part of this family at all.

When it came time for Kona Blue to name its crop, names such as Kona Kahala, Hawaiian Hamachi were put on the table. Kona Kampachi got the nod.

This name game has been played before, with tilapia, marketed for a time as "sunfish." The new name never did catch on and you won't see tilapia -- which had a reputation as a dirty river fish -- on high-end restaurant menus. Still, clean, farm-raised tilapia, is by most measures a success story and one of Hawaii's top aquacultural products.

Whatever the name, Kona Blue is headed for growth. Six ocean cages were stocked in March. The aim is to harvest 35,000 pounds weekly from the cages by mid-2006 -- way up from the 1,000 pounds harvested weekly when the fish was grown in land-based tanks.

The cages are a 40-minute boat run away and can be kept in continual production, so Sims said it will be possible to take orders, drive out there, bring back just what's needed and deliver it at prime freshness. "It's not like commercial fishermen who have to go out and hunt the fish down. We'll be able to harvest to order."

Kona Blue's initial sales strategy is to get its kampachi into restaurants with a good appreciation of raw fish -- sushi bars and high-end Asian restaurants, then white-tablecloth restaurants and seafood places. An investment will be made in teaching restaurant servers about the fish, so they can point out its connection to the respected hamachi when they introduce it to customers.

On a retail basis, the fish has already been placed in the Japanese markets Marukai and Daiei. The next step will be specialty food stores on the mainland, such as Whole Foods.

Currently all Kona Blue's kampachi is being sold whole, but as the caged fish grow bigger, to 4 or 5 pounds, fillets will be offered, as well as sushi trays.

Wade Igarashi, seafood buyer for Daiei Hawaii, said sales of the fish have been "fair only," which he attributes to shoppers being unfamiliar with the name.

Because it is only sold whole, customers aren't sure what they're getting. And those who do know fish, Igarashi said, see its resemblance to kahala -- "a little negative influence."

But he believes in the potential of the fish and that he can optimize it by offering cutting and cooking demonstrations in the stores. The price is right at $7.99 a pound, Igarashi said, and quality and availability have been consistent. It's just a matter of customers making the discovery.

"They have to know how it tastes and what it looks like," he said. "For certain, tasting is believing."

Chef Hiroshi Fukui of Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas was one of the first local chefs to be given a taste of farm-raised kahala -- five years ago when the Oceanic Institute first spawned the fish at its Makapuu research facility.

Now that the fish is available from Kona Blue, he orders two or three every couple of days for his restaurant, where it is served raw and pan-roasted with a miso-cream sauce. He even replaced moi with Kona Kampachi in one his signature dishes, a "carpaccio" of thinly sliced fish topped with julienned ginger and tiny cubes of tomato.

Fukui said he prefers the local fish even to hamachi, for its better balanced fat content and slight crunchiness. "They've done it just right," he said. "Enough fat for good flavor, but it's not too fatty, so it's easier to eat. And for Japanese, that crunchiness is important. The fresher the fish, the more crunchy."

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Kona Kampachi is best appreciated raw or seared, with light dipping sauces. Light cooking is also a good approach.

Asian Style Steamed Kona Kampachi

Kona Blue Water Farms

2 6-ounce kampachi fillets
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 to 6 ti leaves (or 1 banana leaf)
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
2 tablespoons roughly chopped ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, smashed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon peanut oil
Furikake, to taste

Season fillets with salt and pepper.

Place ti leaves side-by-side so they form two wrapper wide enough to enclose fish. Top with rice. Place fish over rice and top with ginger, lemongrass, soy sauce and oil. Sprinkle with furikake.

Fold sides and ends of ti leaves over fish to completely seal. Place in a steamer over boiling water 12 minutes. Serves 2.

Estimated Nutrient Analysis per serving (Not including salt or furikake) 520 calories, 10 g total fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 65 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,000 mg sodium, 60 g carbohydrate, less than 1 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 44 g protein.

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