there was a lot of fish being wasted just so exciting how many lives we've been able to
influence and how many people we've been able to feed
Rangatira kai
simple as ABC
today we're going to be sharing an inspiring story with you about an organisation called
The Kai Ika Project Thomas and i have been following the work of these guys for so long
and it is absolutely awesome so The Kai Ika Project take fish heads fish frames
fish offal and they redistribute it to the community to people who really value these
parts of the fish so we're going to be shadowing these guys today learn more about the work that
they do and show you what they're all about
so The Kai Ika Project is based here in the Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae
so marae are Māori meeting grounds and they're spaces where celebrations funerals education community
things happen it's a very sacred space and this is where The Kai Ika Project runs out of so it was
this whānau or family the Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae family who started the The Kai Ika Project
Kai Ika was established 2016 now
with a partnership through the Outboard Boating Club of Auckland
the Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae and LegaSea
there was a lot of fish being wasted um people coming from a big day out at fishing they would come to OBC fillet their fish
and then they had big fish bins filled with heads and frames and usually they would just throw it straight in the bin um or back in the ocean
so they identified this problem and from that Kai Ika was established
we've got to go and find Carlos who we're going to be shadowing today where is he kia ora Carlos
mōrena
how are ya? Mōrena
so yea my name is Carlos
I'm one of the kaimahi, kaitiaki, kaiauaha tene marae Papatūānuku Kōkiri
just really have a massive passion for our community for our people um so Kai Ika
has been an awesome you know mahi to do in terms of what we're doing um how we're diverting the
fish from waste to feed whānaus you know quite a few birds with one stone
I guess you know manaaki taiao or the environment but also feeding our whānau and our
community
so we're picking up some fish parts the fish parts come from all around the place so fish companies
recreational fishers we're picking up about 230kgs of mainly tāmure heads and frames and offal today
it started off simple recovering 17 kilograms of fish heads and frames
one week brought it back to the marae and it was gone within a few seconds so
they did that week after week 17 kilos turned into 50 turned into hundreds and
now we are recovering and sharing over 1500 kilograms each week of fish heads and frames
the truck pulled into the marae and now um the boys are just
unloading the fish and so they're just quickly popping them into containers people brought
their own containers and they're loading them up they're going to take them home and cook them up
there's so much beautiful kaimoana coming out of the bins and there's so much good
eating still left on these fish frames and that's one of the big missions of the Kai Ika Project
is to educate people about eating the whole fish respecting the whole animal
man there's so much good eating right yes so on the fishes we still have
obviously some of the meat that's left on the frame um there's a lovely piece under here
which is called the wing uh the wing has is my favorite part of the fish is the wing um
and then we've got the head where the cheekbones and the top of the scalp that's my favorite yeah the cheek
and then if you're a real fish head lover people usually go for the eyes as well nice and succulent
we call this part of the fish or you know the offcuts the head Rangatira Kai um because our tupuna used to
utilize full of the fish not just the fillets but also enjoy the head and the frames as well
so Rangatira Kai translates to chief's food yeah chiefly food like chief yeah chiefly food man
the best bits of the kai is the is the head and the rest of the body fillets are a bonus
I think last week or the week before it just ticked over to 140,000 kilograms which is insane
um i mean we're averaging over 50,000 kilograms a year now which is incredible that's the
distribution all done here at the marae but the truck still has fish in it it's heading off
south to a little township called Pukekohe where they're going to distribute more of the fish so
it gets out to a wide range of the community and it's just so neat being here seeing it all happen
seeing this fish moving into the community and being used because it's sacrilege to see that fish
being wasted and only those fillets being used all those frames those heads the wings delicious
pieces of the fish the eyes this just it's the prime cuts and it's so great to not see it being
wasted the fish do have the guts in them so some days they are breaking them down and then the guts
are used with their huge gardens they've got they make fish emulsions for composting on the garden
so every little piece of the fish is used here at The Kai Ika Project it's a stunning
story it's so neat watching it all happen and seeing that fish go out there to be used
we've popped down to Westhaven which is the main marina here in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland there is a
lot of boats in Auckland and a lot of fishers but this is the main marina and what Kai Ika also have
is this trailer that i'm standing in and this is their filleting trailer and it's
fantastic you can come down here and Quenton who is an
expert i fish myself if you follow us on instagram you might see some of my fishing exploits but
filleting is something i am not good at and so i'm watching Quenton here who is a pro
at filleting and it's just it's like art to watch it's incredible but i love it down here so they're
down here at the main marina and you can come with your catch as a recreational fisherman
they'll fillet your fish for you $3 a fish then they get to keep the
heads and the frames and wings and then they get redistributed through to the community it's all
just part of that learning and teaching people about using the whole fish and not just filleting
it at home and throwing it in the bin because we cannot see this fish being wasted i love it
that is great to see and another cool thing they do is knife sharpening so
any budding fish filleters like me
you can get your knife sharpened on a professional machine so
Quenton has just sharpened up my filleting knife for me so hopefully i catch a fish
soon so i can test that out i love this i love what they're doing such a cool setup
we've arrived at LegaSea HQ LegaSea is one of the founding partners of The Kai Ika
Project so we're here to learn a bit more about The Kai Ika project
from the team and we're here for what's behind that door so a lot of the fish
heads and fish frames that were collected at the filleting trailer at the marina over the weekend
are in that smoker smoking away and they're going to be distributed to some of the marae around the
area as well we have about 45 minutes left until those babies come out of the smoker
obviously when Covid hit our shores there were over a hundred thousand people that were unemployed especially
in the south auckland region with the airport being shut down which meant they needed food
so they turned to Kai Ika and what we had to do is dramatically increase our source of kaimoana
we actually reached out to commercial fishing companies so Moana New Zealand we reached out to
them they came on board they started supplying hundreds and hundreds of kilograms of fish
so we were able to i guess service our small community which is now a large community of
uh fish head recipients and ever since then it's growing it's grown to what it is today
i'm here with Dallas Abel who is the project coordinator of The Kai Ika Project Quenton is on
the tools so he's about to do the big reveal the smell is insane my favorite part i know right oh
my goodness far out so using mānuka wood for the smoking and the fish has been in there for how
many hours Dallas i think about four to five hours right now four to five hours and these fish heads
and wings and the roe are going to go to a marae school so that is a good feed there's about 80 heads
The Kai Ika Project a lot of it is also about teaching people how to utilize
and cook with the offcuts exactly that people wouldn't generally eat so most of the time it
is the heads and frames it gets thrown in the bin unfortunately and wasted so we'll each grab one
yeah we'll each grab one we'll have a have a crack so you can already feel it right at the top
all in the top of the head here you can just feel it well that's all beautiful flesh we've got all
up in the back of the head here and also the cheek meat the cheeks it is so tender get into it oh my god
look at that just pull off the side of that head and then you have the cheek that comes
all the way up to the eye and then behind the eye is the ocular nerve which is also quite delicious
so you could see all of that delicious meat just falling straight off oh my goodness who would waste that
we sometimes take the meat from the heads and then turn it into a dip like with cream cheese
gherkins capers put that on toast or crackers you can put that into a fish pie there's
so many ways you can use this beautiful meat yep you just have to give it a try whether it's
smoking steaming boiling baking just give it a go and you get to reap the delicious rewards
it has been a real thrill sharing the story of The Kai Ika Project today they rely heavily
on public donations so there's some links down below if you'd like to help them out
if you're a recreational fisher go and check out their filleting trailer down at the Westhaven
marina in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and if you want some tips on how to cook
up fish parts check out their Instagram and Facebook pages and don't forget to hit like
and hit subscribe thanks for watching
it's pretty basic how do you have more fish in the water kill less fish
how do you kill less fish eat more of the fish you do harvest