my $party = (grep $_->[0] eq 'fish', @$pairs)[0]->[1];

##</code><code>##

use List::Util 'first';
my $party = (first {$_->[0] eq 'fish'} @$pairs)->[1];

##</code><code>##

sub as_hash {
  my $aref = shift;
  return { map @$_, @$aref };
}