NGA TUNA

Hinaki

Throughout the world, eels are fished for using spears, gaffs or ordinary lines and baited hooks. One of the most efficient methods for catching these fish, however, is the use of eel pots or hinaki. Basically, hinaki are open woven, basket-like containers, baited, and with one or two openings for the eels to enter, plus a hinged door for their removal.

While eel pots continue to be used the world over in much the same manner as they always have, their manufacture has changed radically. In Aotearoa, hinaki were traditionally made from a variety of the strong and durable materials readily available to Maori. These included mange mange, the aerial roots of the kie kie, manuka stems, supplejack (pirita) and flax (harakeke). The rarity of many of these plants today has led to the use of factory made materials such as galvanised wire and netting, recycled washing baskets, or in the case of commercially produced varieties, aluminum hoops and multifilament fishing net.

An innovative and environmentally aware designer might like to try a variety of natural or recycled materials for manufacturing their fish trap. These might include willow stems, honeysuckle or jasmine vines, flax, recycled bird netting, etc. Whatever materials your design leads you to, however, your hinaki must be robust and well put together. Even a medium sized eel is a powerful and determined creature, and will soon make it’s way out of a flimsy trap. Currents in the river or stream will also soon damage such a hinaki.

Looking at some basic requirements for the design of our hinaki, then, we should consider

  • Robustness and rigidity
  • Tightness of weave to contain the fish, but sufficient openness to allow the water to flow through
  • An entrance that allow fish of a reasonable size to enter, but one that makes their escape difficult
  • An opening with a removable or hinged cover to enable the fish to be removed from the pot
  • Sufficiently sized to allow large eels and quantities of eels to enter the trap.

Frequently, hinaki used in lakes and slower moving waters were shorter and plumper, much like the short fin species that often inhabit such waterways. Sometimes these hinaki would have entrances at both ends.

For use in faster flowing rivers and streams, hinaki were longer and narrower, reflecting the greater size of the long fin eel, more common in such waters, and increased river flow dynamics.

If the hinaki was to be used when the eels were migrating, it was not baited and placed with the entranceway downstream to utilize the river current to disperse the scent, but rather, set between a pair of fences known as a weir, or pa tuna, that led the migrating eels through a leading net often called a purangi, and thence into the pot.

The form of a good, general purpose hinaki might be around 1 to 1.4 metres long, and 500 to 600 mm in diameter. If you’re going to build such a hinaki from scratch, you’ll need to make up some diameter rings to give the pot its shape and strength. The longer laths can be tied to the rings and folded back to form the entrance to the trap, or alternatively, a separate entranceway can be formed and tied to the main body of the pot. The ends of these laths can be pointed to discourage the eel’s return, or attached to a segment of sock or pantyhose.

HINAKI FRAMEWORK

Whatever construction techniques you choose, the materials will have to be woven strongly enough to the framework to contain the eels, while also being sufficiently open to allow water to flow freely through it. Extra bracing may be needed to develop the rigidity in your pot, to both contain the eels and to meet the demands of swiftly flowing waters and the weight of lifting the hinaki and its catch.

Add a handle to the top of your hinaki, and a system to hold your bait, and you’re ready to go fishing!

Tuna will take a variety of baits, and every fisher has their favoured ones. It’ll be up to you to experiment and record what foods tempt these magnificent creatures. Develop records also of the time of year you caught your fish, any defining characteristics they might have, and the lunar phase.

If you can, make this a part of your National Waterways Project monitoring, and see if you can establish any link-ups between habitat quality, macroinvertebrate populations, and the water temperature, etc at your chosen site.

However you approach your project, you will need to remember that nga tuna are a taonga – a gift of the gods – and must be treated with the aroha and respect of any members of our community. For centuries they have provided life supporting sustenance, and a connection with the ancient world of our place, and with loving care and management, may continue to help provide for our well being for millennia more.

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