Steph Kudus, founder of Pololi

“In the beginning, we were only focused on making really good poké for everyone. After around six months, I realised that we were going through so much fish that I felt like something needed to be done. I’m an avid scuba diver, and I’ve been to sites two years apart and they look completely different, so this is the reason why I felt like it was my responsibility to find a sustainable tuna supplier, given that the majority of our poké is made with ahi [a Hawaiian word meaning yellowfin tuna].”

How can we do better?

I believe that as consumers – and I am a consumer as well – everyone has the right to ask questions, and we need to be responsible eaters by choosing right. At Pololi, we’ve kind of done the hard part for you. So as a consumer, you just come in and buy a bowl and you know that all of our ahi is sustainable, so, you know, one bowl at a time. We all have the responsibility to ask questions and to know where our food is from because we want to be part of the world that we want to live in.

Favourite seafood dish?

Obviously, poké is my favourite thing to eat. I eat poké every single day! However, I think what makes me happiest is when I eat something like freshly caught scallops or oysters from the shell; I could eat that all day without needing to mask it by cooking. I would say being able to taste the ocean in my mouth, that to me is the best thing in the world.