A TikTok video showing Oahu chef and business owner Kale D. Shanks spearing a large uhu at a site alleged to be in Hanauma Bay, a Marine Life Conservation District where fishing is banned, was taken down today at the request of Friends of Hanauma Bay after receiving more than 20,000 views.
Lisa Bishop, president of the conservation group, told the Star-Advertiser she first heard about the video, which displayed a caption stating, “Had an opportunity to dive in Hanauma Bay on Oahu,” on Saturday and had tried unsuccessfully to reach Shanks.
In a phone interview, Bishop said her fear was that others would be inspired to do the same and cause harm to the fragile reef ecosystem, which algae eaters like uhu help keep in balance.
“Our goal is to stop this from happening and get this post off social media, which is notorious for egging people on to do stupid and illegal things,” she said.
Contacted by the Star-Advertiser via Instagram message, Shanks replied that Hanauma Bay was not the spearfishing location shown in the video, nor had it been his intent to encourage illegal behavior.
He said he hadn’t been aware of the recent post, where his TikTok content managers said they had inserted the false caption “as satire, meant to be funny and drive traffic to my account.”
His TikTok managers, Shanks added, were his two youngest sons, age 14 and 16, and his goal was “to teach them marketing skills but to do it in a responsible way.”
Shanks said his business, Hawaiis Only, which sells local foods and custom knives and conducts chef appearances and cooking classes, has a sustainability mission, teaching people how to catch and cook invasive species, fish that are regulation size, and so-called “rubbish fish, that people usually don’t eat, so that there is less pressure on (popular) species.”
He added he was proud of his kids, who until now had posted fun content that had grown his TikTok page to 27,000 followers, and who removed the spearfishing video after they got home from school.
