Big Fijian Fish
pp. 61-62 · Read in the full issue
Ray That Weighs a Ton
By Arthur Robinson.
WE often hear of the “Big ’Uns” that got away, when telling fish yarns, so I enclose photographs of a couple that did not get away.
The name of the big fish (really a devil fish ray) in Yasawas dialect is Saga 8a-
gena (pronounced sanker sangena). They weigh, roughly, a ton. They are 8 to 10 ft. long, by 12 to 14 feet wide, with a huge mouth, and a small tail, 18 inches long, which is fortunately free of the usual barb. The skin is rough, like a shark’s skin.
The photographs, from top to bottom, are:— The Saga Sagena, just after its removal from the net.
The huge creature, with its mouth being held open.
A shark.
These fish were caught in turtle nets in the Yasawas (the home of the big fish in Fiji), within 150 yards of my house, on Naviti Island a couple of years ago.
The two things appearing like horns, on each side of the huge mouth, are really two 8-inch wide flippers. The eyes
are at the base of these. I believe the fish uses these flippers to scoop the sand containing its food into its mouth. It has no teeth, and all we ever found in the stomach was a mess like chocolate blanc mange.
In the six months ended June 30, 1935, Australia exported 4000 railway sleepers, worth £B5B, to Nauru.
Mr. I van Nelson, of Messrs. Nelson and Robertson Ltd., Islands merchants, of Sydney, left Sydney for New Guinea by the Macdhui on July 25.