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Posted: Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 9:01 AM HST

Kauai company importing opihi from Ireland

By Associated Press

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) _ A Kauai-based company is importing opihi from Ireland as local supplies of the mollusk have declined. Noelani Josselin says she and surfer friend Patrick Murphy were visiting Ireland when they noticed a seabed of what looked like opihi as the sea receded at low tide. An old Irishman told them the Irish used to eat the limpets they called barnacs during Ireland's great famine when the nation had no sheep or cows. But he said Irish don't eat the mollusk any more. So Josselin started importing the opihi's Irish cousin to Hawaii, mostly to sell to luau organizers. Island Opihi Company now imports about one thousand pounds of Irish opihi every two months. The trade is developing just as Hawaii's opihi stocks are suffering. The Legislature recently passed a bill to ban the commercial sale of opihi, saying overharvesting has depleted opihi on Oahu and easily accessible areas on the neighbor islands. (Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved)