Koichi Masaki at Waimea Pier, 1976

Back in 1976, the Kauai Historical Society gave me a list of sites to photograph for the book "The Kauai Album", including the Waimea Pier. Built in 1865 on the site of Captain Cook's first landing 77 years earlier, the pier originally served the whaling industry and, later, livestock and sugar. I made a few photos from the beach just before sunset, then walked out onto the pier to photograph back toward the coast.

Cheered by the soft, warm, low winter light bouncing from the water, I was delighted to see my friend Koichi Masaki talking to some fishermen at the end of the pier. I liked to call Koichi my friend, though I'm sure he never remembered my name. He was everybody's friend—one of those people you like at first sight, with a firm, calloused handshake that wasn't aggressive but respectful—and he had an amused grin with smiling eyes.

Born at Mana Camp in 1900, Koichi was a fisherman, a boat captain, a West Side character, a firebrand, and a local legend. He got his first boat in 1916, a 32-footer, and quickly mastered trolling and bottom fishing. By 1928, he owned the "Seagull", a 52-footer that led Kauai's 38-boat-strong fishing fleet working the waters around Ni'ihau and Kaula Rock.

He discovered a reef not found on any charts after consistently catching shallow-water fish like Ulua, Kahala, and Uku in the open ocean. The Coast Guard couldn't find this phantom reef and asked Koichi to lead them to it so they could add it to their charts. Locals still call it Masaki's Reef.

In the early 50's, the Military began using these abundant fishing grounds for target practice. Koichi was outraged. In a 1987 article in the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser, Jan TenBruggencate interviewed Koichi. He lamented the death of the fleet and commercial fishing on Kauai, blaming the bombing of their grounds.

"When they bomb Kaʻula, you can't catch one tuna," Koichi said back in 1987. "You can feel the blast 20 miles away. Before, we had surplus fish. There were more fish in Hawaiian waters than you could sell. Today, Kauai has no fishing vessels to catch the long-line tuna. The traditional fishermen and their grandsons quit fishing. There is no support from the government."

After spending his last years lobbying local and federal officials to stop the bombing, Koichi died in 1991.