11th Annual Keiki Fishing Tournament

Photo by Melia Kalawe

By Léo Azambuja
It appears the fish had no chance at Maurice Point last Saturday. With about 160 young fishermen — some skilled, some beginners — competing for prizes at a children’s fishing tournament, hundreds of fish were hooked over the weekend. Most, however, were returned to the ocean.
“It’s a catch and release (tournament),” said Robert Kalawe Jr., founder and organizer of the Annual Keiki Fishing Tournament. He added it is important to teach catch-and-release to children because it teaches them conservation at a young age, and also how to give back to the ocean.
Armed with bamboo poles distributed by the organization, every child had the same chance of catching the biggest fish when the 11th edition of the free tournament kicked off July 12 at 10 a.m.
Most of the catch included popaʻa, kupipi and hinalea. There were also papio, oio, enenue, moana, manini, and even a tiny eel and a humuhumunukuapuaʻa. Some of the bigger fish caught were kept, but the vast majority of the fish caught were released back into the ocean, according to Kalawe.
Ezequiel Lani camped with his friends on the East End overnight, hoping to catch an oio for the tournament, and had to settle on a papio. But fishing was only a part of the reason he was there.
“This is my first time competing, and I wanted to get the feeling of fishing with my best friends and camping,” the 14-year-old said.
Tenelle Heimuli is only seven years old, but already has a lot of fishing experience; her grandpa takes her fishing on his boat. She caught three fish, but said the best part of her weekend was camping on the East End with her friends and family, and making smores.
If the manini caught by Kahele Bannister was as large as she showed with her hands, it might be a world record. The six-year-old said her favorite thing in the tournament was catching the fish.
Despite the rain that drenched the tournament when it was coming to a close at noon, none of the young fishermen seemed to bother getting wet. It was time for hot-dogs, chili, shave ice and the long-awaited list of winners and their prizes.
Just like every year since the tournament was first created, every child was a winner.
“This year, instead of giving one prize to each kid, we thought we would give them a little more. We’re giving them two to three prizes to get them more excited,” Kalawe said.
The prizes — all of them donated by the community — included fishing kits, ulua poles, coolers, bodyboards, skateboards, toys of all kinds, games, stickers, hats and many others.
Kalawe said every year he organizes the tournament, it is special for the children. These days, he said, there aren’t many events giving back to the children, as opposed to when he was a young child growing up on Molokai.
To him, events like this help to bring the community together and foster a healthy environment that keeps children from getting into trouble.
The tournament is also important because it teaches children how to fish.
“We have that resource over here, you don’t have to go to the store (to buy fish),” Kalawe said.
Every year, the tournament moves venue as a way of trying to reach every child on Molokai. Last year, it was held at Kaunakakai Wharf, when about 300 children participated. Kalawe said he expected less children this year because Maurice Point is far from town. But the smaller crowd meant the tournament could give more prizes to each child.
Next year, the keiki fishing tournament will be held on the West End.