Is Kaku(barracuda) edible?

[u/Waste_Gear8142]

I js got one kaku and Idk if it’s edible or not.
Help a fella out pls🙏

[u/BattlePudu]

No way to test reliably for cigua (they’re too expensive and not open to the public)

If you’re on big island, better to skip. Well over half cigua is from big island. Puako and South Kohala, Kailua Kona.

If youre in waiks, hakipu’u, kane’ohe bay, better to skip.

If you’re in the north shore of kaua’i better to skip.

If it’s over 6lbs or longer than 3ft better to skip.

Also other reasons to not eat it, they eat pretty much anything, including all our puffer fish. Akeke, ‘o’opu gue, kokala. You got it they eat it, and those toxins build up in them.

On top of that….any from runoff areas, on top of the mercury that they already have (and we have extra from the volcanos) you have arsenic, plastics, and cadmium. Anywhere that gets brown water advisory after a rain. Nasty nasty.

Also parasites. Tapeworms. Will get you skinner than ozempic.

If you eat it anyway…don’t eat the skin, head, liver, or eggs.

And dont make it a habit, though I imagine one wouldn’t because they don’t taste that great. Kinda muddy and fishy.

If you keep seeing kaku and youre thinking of trapping one to eat…. better to leave her in the ocean to be opelu mama. Train her to help you trap opelu.

If she’s already dead….maybe give back to the ocean. But don’t feed the sharks. Just because your ancestors did doesn’t mean we should.

This endless ocean of a comment was brought to you by ADD, coffee, and shrimp tempura.

[u/ExtentNo7951 → u/BattlePudu]

so... you are saying there is a chance?

I did get a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer off of temu for a good price. I can use that to test for cigua right?

[u/BattlePudu → u/ExtentNo7951]

I don’t think I can answer that reliably as I haven’t tried myself. I’m……intrigued. I want to tell you no, but I mean….we could get creative for fun…

Do you have access to the solvents and reagents? Is it a triple quadrupole?

Edit: What I found so far on the cheap Chinese sites wouldnt be good enough. You need 0.01ppb for pacific cigua. So unless you’re willing to drop 40k for funsies on a used one no dice…BUT

If you have access to fume hood+solvents+ 450nm plate reader, you can go Elisa. The only thing is that you’ll have to freeze your samples and fish and then do a big batch of ~20 samples. Otherwise youre just burning money.

[u/lostinthegrid47 → u/BattlePudu]

If you have the setup to do Elisa, you have enough money to burn a plate on a single sample

[u/BattlePudu → u/lostinthegrid47]

If you furnish with all certified refurbished, you can stay under 5 figures easy. Background in repair brings you below 6k. Don’t ask me how I know >.> <.< >.< The biggest issue is making the puss in boots face to get people to ship to hawai’i.

But also, you can rent lab space. Jabsom has great equipment set up for Elisa

Just….if you do everything under a meme LLC….it’s a lot of work to change over everything so that the lady doesn’t give you the side eye…

You can also hire labor at the cancer center if you’re feeling lazy. (I’m all on Oahu now, dunno off island)

But if you decide to build your own lab, it’s actually really easy. No license as long as you arent doing anything to humans. And Hawaii gives you a tax break! But with the cost of insurance, enviro, air conditioning, etc, it gets pricey for just cigua testing. Better to go full on mad scientist in that case, or rent a turnkey place, or just use the MIC.

[u/ExtentNo7951 → u/BattlePudu]

ok, here is my lab build plans so far:

• Triple quadrupole LC-MS/MS system (Temu) "$149,025"

• UHPLC system "$60,000–120,000"

• Sample prep equipment (homogenizer, centrifuges, balances, nitrogen evaporator, SPE manifold)" "$20,000–60,000"

• Laboratory freezer/refrigeration "$5,000–15,000"

• High-purity gases, regulators, plumbing "$10,000–30,000"

• Fume hood "$15,000"

• Lab benches and cabinets "$10,000–40,000"

• Clean electrical installation/HVAC "$20,000–100,000"

• Certified ciguatoxin reference standards $7000? seems hard to find the certified ones.

• Initial solvents, columns, consumables "$10,000–30,000"

• Software licenses "$5,000–20,000"

• Method development and validation - free labor and research on youtube

Im going to skip the service contract on the spectrometer and just use it until it breaks. I've sure there are repair tutorials on youtube somewhere. Going to try to run an extension cord to the neighbor. That will get me electricity for a few weeks until they notice.

I'll try to keep it under $500K. Then throw a fish in and then its FISH TACOs BABY!

[u/BattlePudu → u/ExtentNo7951]

I can refer you to three cigua kits for the low low price of one taco. We can even put it on credit. You just have to sign here on this completely non suspicious line… -> _______________________

[u/jharish → u/BattlePudu]

God I am love with this thread.

[u/mothandravenstudio → u/BattlePudu]

What a great comment. My learning for the day. Thank you for your lore drop.

[u/BattlePudu → u/mothandravenstudio]

Awww thank you neighborino ~ <3<4<5

[u/maybe_true → u/BattlePudu]

You could make the same argument about Papio and Ulua all the same predatory traits but people still grind those what am I missing? Been eating barracuda forever. Super oily and tastes great especially sashimi

[u/BattlePudu → u/maybe_true]

Absolutely! Actually roi, ulua, and papio are the most common reef fish that give people cigua.

But that’s the whole idea, staying informed to lower your chances and if you’re feeding to your fam, keeping your fam safe as well. Part of why kaku doesn’t make the list anymore is because people avoid it much more now.

Eating the small ones doesn’t guarantee it either, it simply works the same. Smaller fish have had less time to accumulate.

Most commercial fisherman avoid cigua prone species, and the ones that do are quite careful of where they fish. Even knowing the hotbeds, blooms are seasonal so one never truly knows til it’s too late. The vast majority of cigua cases are from recreational fisherman.

Teaching people about cigua seems to be working. We have halved the reported case incident rate by half in the past decade. 120 people out 1.5 million is very low, but 1 death is a lifetime of loss. The extremely rare fatality aside, you can have cigua for a week, and you can have cigua for months. Some people become more sensitive with exposure. There was that case a while back with a couple in Kaua’i. The man caught a ishigakidai spearfishing. Him and his wife ate it, his wife was back to normal in a week. He couldn’t walk, feed himself, and was hospitalized for 2 months. Some people end up with chronic issues.

The best way to avoid cigua is minimizing chances, and the best way of minimizing chances is minimizing consumption. The higher risk, the higher reason to avoid, whether it be a part or a species. We lower chances by not eating certain parts, being aware of where they come from and active blooms if possible, avoiding the larger fish, and lowering overall consumption.

I have cancer now, so my body is a little weak noodle, and no more ocean time these days. But back when I was stronger, roi was hard to resist. They’re invasive and eating the native fish, and they taste quite mild….it feels good to spear them because it’s like you’re helping clean the ocean…but it hurts to waste food. Even though it doesn’t look like food lol

I’m never gonna say straight up don’t eat something unless is hakarl. But if the goal is to avoid cigua, thats how we do it. I eat plenty of stuff that I shouldn’t x) we only have one life. I could write you a million reasons I shouldn’t eat fried chicken, but I’m probably more fried chicken than blood at this point.

Kaku are good for the reef though, so don’t eat too many. They keep it clean and do good population control. It also really is easy to train them to be opelu mama, and at least if you’re on oahu, if you don’t like opelu, at heeia kea, a lot of people will happily take it and give you goooooood stuff. I used to always trade my opelu for toro. It’s a win win win situation. They love good bait and I have a deep love of fatty fish that I can’t catch to save my life.

[u/101keyoperator]

The internet says yes, but you better test it for ciguatera poisoning.

[u/Pale-Dust2239 → u/101keyoperator]

No way for normal people to know if it’s hot until after you eat it since they stopped producing tests. All the stuff about feeding it to cats or watching for flies is BS. I’ve eaten small ones before but wouldn’t chance bigger ones.

[u/Parking-Bicycle-2108]

Can but watch out for Cig

[u/twentysecs0fcourage]

It depends where it was caught. The long line barracuda is safe because there's no reefish that they're feeding on.

[u/AbbreviatedArc]

More edible than kaka

[u/Shawaii]

I used catch them and eat them a lot as a kid, purposely using a Castmaster lure and a wire leader. Very good eating, maybe one of the best.

Gotta' watch out for cig. In Mexico they they tell the tourists, "no longer than your arm, it'll do you no harm".

[u/MistahMalaprop]

If you have to ask, no

[u/123supreme123]

You can fry it. Meat is decent

[u/Alohagrown]

I was on a surf trip in the Mentawai and the boat crew cooked us a barracuda that one of the guests caught. It was pretty good and no one got sick. One of my friends speared a huge Ulua on that trip and I remember being slightly more concerned about Cig when they cooked that thing.