It’s feeding time at the Maui Ocean Center.

From Sunday, Nov. 23, through Saturday, Nov. 29, it is feeding time at Maui Ocean Center’s (MOC) Hawaiian Aquarium, where visitors will be “stuffed” with a smorgasbord of naturalist presentations, behind-the-scenes tours, “Chef Diver,” cooking demonstrations, a recipe contest and food specials in the Maui Ocean Center Store and Seascape Ma‘alaea Restaurant.

Maui Ocean Center hosted its first ever Sustainable & Invasive Seafood Recipe Contest. The public was invited to submit a recipe that uses a sustainable seafood item from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide or an Invasive Species as the main ingredient. Twenty winners were selected and featured in the Sustainable & Invasive Seafood Recipes section on the Maui Ocean Center Website.

Seafood Watch is a program designed to raise awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. The Seafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Guide Hawaii 2008 empowers consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. More information about sustainable seafood and Seafood Watch is available at www.seafoodwatch.org.

On Sunday, Nov. 23, and Saturday, Nov. 29, Rising Star Chef Nominee Henry Tariga will present a short cooking demonstration in front of the Living Reef entrance at 10:15 a.m. The demonstration will focus on awareness of sustainable seafood in Hawai‘i. The Seascape Ma‘alaea Restaurant will feature a sustainable seafood dish for each day of ‘That Bites’ Week, including the special dishes prepared by Chef Tariga.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, you can participate in Maui Ocean Center’s food drive for the Maui Food Bank.