A Kauai company is importing the limpets from Ireland

oelani Josselin said she was with surfer friend Patrick Murphy in Ireland when they noticed a seabed of what looked like opihi as the sea receded at low tide.

They turned out to be a relative called limpets.

An old Irishman told them that residents no longer gathered and ate the “barnacs” as they did during the great famine when there were no sheep or cows.

“I was just so amazed there was just so much opihi,” Josselin recalled. “My wheels started spinning and one thing led to another.”

Josselin, owner of Kauai-based Island Opihi Co., is importing the opihi’s Irish cousin — about 1,000 pounds every two months — and selling most of them to organizers of luaus.

“When they try it, they say, ‘Wow, this is really good,’” Josselin said.

“We keep bringing more in.”

read more …

(Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin)