In a resurgence of one segment of the aquaculture industry, a Kekaha, Kauai, company plans to sell clams and oysters to markets, restaurants and hotels on Kauai beginning next month and distribute shellfish products statewide by the end of summer.
Sunrise Capital Inc., doing business as Kauai Clams, is the first Hawaii operation in 26 years to receive Health Department approval to farm and sell shellfish.
The raising and sale of shellfish requires strict state and federal regulation to prevent foodborne illnesses, the state Health Department says. At issue particularly is the purity of the water in which the clams are raised.
The last shellfish operation in Hawaii, Hawaiian Seafood Gardens, closed in 1997 due to financial reasons, the Health Department says. Local interest in shellfish farming faded, and the department allowed its laboratory certification to lapse in 2000.
In recent years there has been renewed interest from some local companies to produce shellfish, prompting the Health Department to train and certify staff to conduct sanitation surveys of water and obtain the proper equipment and materials for its labs.
In January 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined the Health Department’s Pearl City laboratory complied, followed in January of this year by the Hawaii island lab.
Gary Gill, deputy health director for environmental health, said ponds at the shellfish farm on Kauai are fed by groundwater and are not subjected to polluted runoff or seasonal variations.
"It took less time to certify their growing waters because it’s controlled," said Gill.
Health Department officials are testing the growing waters of two other shellfish operations — Paepae o He‘eia at Heeia Kea and Molii Pond, owned by Kualoa Ranch — that have applied for permits.
The primary product at the Kauai farm currently is pathogen-free shrimp that’s marketed as Kauai Shrimp. The farm produces about 400,00 pounds of shrimp a year and sells it to distributors and supermarkets in Hawaii, on the West Coast and in Boston.
They are also sent to hatcheries in Southeast Asia and China.
The shrimp are produced in 40 1-acre ponds at the 250-acre facility, which has a source of naturally filtered, pristine salt water. The farm uses hydropower generated from rainwater in Kokee.
The company has been experimenting with growing clams for the past three years. Mike Turner, Sunrise Capital’s sales and marketing representative, said the company also plans to introduce Kumamoto and Blue Point oysters and is experimenting with fish: moi, kahala and grouper.
