Tropical Fish

Some Methods in Papua

By C.R.

A PAPUAN MISSIONARY told me of many ways in which fish are caught by the natives of Papua.

Big nets and little nets are used; spears and fish traps made of cane-like baskets; hand scoop-nets, used by the women and girls; bows and arrows managed by small boys to catch fish in the pools on the reef when the tide is out.

A number of fish are caught in pools on the coral reef with poison. The poison is the juice of the crushed root of a vine.

It is tied to a stick and poked about under the water. The fish soon succumb to it.

A kite is also used to snare some kinds of fish. The kite is flown over the water and the snare dangles on the surface.

Nets are made of strong cord. The cord is made of fibre and the fibre is obtained from banana, wild cotton, pandanus and the stalk of a strong creeping vine whose root is dug up for food. The fibre for string and cord and rope is in the pith of the aerial roots of the pandanus tree —roots that grow down from the branches or trunk to the ground. It is wonderfully strong.

The fishing kite is made from a dried pandanus leaf. A light string about 40 feet long is attached to the tail of the kite about half-way down. At the end of this string is suspended an egg-shaped ball of strong spider’s web. The fisher man rows out in his boat and flies the kite; the ball of web trails along the sur face of the water. A fish leaps at the ball; its teeth become hopelessly entangled in the web; and the native draws it into the boat.

Dugong are found all along the coast of Papua. The dugong, or sea-cow, is the siren and mermaid of a thousand legends. When suckling her only babe the cow raises herself in an upright posi tion with her head well out of the water and clasps her little one to her breast, so that it may breathe while feeding; she is a great mother. Old-time sailors faneied that the dugong was a human creature — hence 2,000 years of romance.

The dugong’s bones are heavier than the bones of any other animal. The skin is one inch thick, in an old cow, and very hard with bristly hair. The creature nips off the marine grass and seaweed at the bottom of the sea with its thick, hard lips, and chews it with its teeth.

Men catch the dugong in the Fly River district with harpoons. As the animal swims through the water it leaves a white phosphorescent line of light behind it. It comes to the reef for food and natives watch the place. They build a platform there and rub sweet smelling leaves on the sticks of the platform. The fisherman stands on the platform with the harpoon in his hand. The dugong is attracted by the smell; it makes a funny noise; the immortal “Song of the Siren” is, if any thing, a huff and a puff, a snort and a grunt. The man makes the same kind of noise with his lips. The dugong thinks a friend is there and swims to the plat form. The native jumps down into the water and plunges his harpoon into the animal. He clings to the end of the rope attached to the harpoon and is dragged quickly through the water by the wounded sea-cow.

His mates paddle hard after him in a canoe and he calls out to them all the time. The dugong swims away to deep water, pulling the man behind him, but soon wearies. The canoe men pick up the spearsman and tie a rope to the tail of the sea-cow, thus preventing it from lifting its head above water to breathe.

It dies by drowning.

Sluggish and inoffensive, the dugong is doomed to become extinct. Its flesh is needed for food, its hide for leather, and its blubber for oil.