In Hawaiian waters, we have two species of kahalas or amberjacks. The better known one is the greater amberjack, which is the larger species. The smaller, slightly less encountered one is the almaco jack, which is being farm raised in Kona under the name “kampachi“. Both are actually good eating but because of ciguatera accumulation and abundance of parasitical worms, they are normally released.

I’ve never caught small kahala until this year, and recently kept a 14 incher to see if it was too small to have worms. Sadly, it had quite a few 1 inch long, off-white worms about the diameter of round dental floss I was able to pull out from the spinal cavity. The fact that they could be removed so easily made them suspect, and probably not part of the fish’s nervous system. Disappointed, I did a quick internet check and found this on the website ncfishes.com, about the lifecycle of the Amberjack Tapeworm.

It’s pretty creepy actually. Sharks are host to adult tapeworms. The sharks poop out the eggs of the worms which develop into a very small, young form of a tape worm on the ocean floor, that are then consumed by crustaceans. The tape worm then grows into its next life stage, still very small, and is intact in the crustacean when it’s consumed by a small fish. The small fish is then consumed by an amberjack and the tape worm develops further, into the “spaghetti worm” stage. Finally, when a shark eats the amberjack, does the tape worm fully mature in the shark, lay egg and the life cycle starts again.

I think the 1 inch tape worms I found in the 14 inch kahala were waiting to grow larger and thicker as the kahala grew. If they overwhelmed the kahala, the host fish would die and so would they. Kinda like how viruses work.

I had kept the 14 inch kahala because it fit the description of an almaco jack. It had a deep, flat body, and its jaw ended before its eye started. It also had a tall dorsal fin. See the chart above from gulfcouncil.org. It was gross to find worms but omilu and white papio have worms too, and this kampachi wasn’t fishy tasting like omilu and white papio. No wonder they are farm raising the almaco.

I’m gonna try to get another small almaco to see if it has worms, and will cook it up again! Not brave enough to eat it raw though.