ROD AND GUN Samoan Fishery Methods Are Hazardous

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 13

ROD AND GUN Samoan Fishery Methods Are Hazardous

Going to Samoa on a new assignment, without much thought of fishing and shooting, I suddenly realised that rod and gun sports as such are peculiar Western institutions. Think of Asia, Latin America and Africa and you think of indigenous peoples fishing and hunting as a means of keeping alive. White men who come for “sport” must be regarded with considerable curiosity. They’re obviously men with more money than they know what to do with.

The Samoan attitude to fishing and shooting is “primitive” without using the term in a derogatory manner. They enjoy fishing and shooting, but the fish and game they take play an important part in their economic life. And since the majority of people fish either for their immediate meal, or to trade the surplus for agricultural produce, the Samoans have

little “sporting” attitude. The less chance you give fish and game to get away, the better. There appears to be little taste discrimination. Small reef fish, large school fish, crabs, crays, octopus and shellfish: from their lagoons the Samoans can take thirty varieties of foods. In the bush there are wild pigs, bush pigeons, flying foxes and a host of smaller native birds—all fair game. The wild pigs live in hard cover and the heat and humidity make their hunting a difficult business. They’re run down with dogs and trapped in pits. Full round tusks from old boars are sometimes worn as ornaments.

The shooting of birds is a different matter. In a country where the labourer’s daily wage is about 7/6 few can afford a rifle, much less a shotgun. A shotgun shell is an expensive item and before it is expended on a bird, the range is first reduced to pointblank. The Samoan pigeon is

a unique species and the authorities have given it a measure of protection by allowing only a limited season. Yet, while touring with a Ministerial party to inspect hurricane damage, we were fed pigeon obviously shot in the closed season. The flying fox is a large fruit-eating bat. It is considered a delicacy by the Samoans, who either catch them during the day by climbing up trees where they see one roosting, or by shooting them. The flying fox is about the size of the kea. One chief has the habit of entertaining European visitors with a fine “chicken” dish and when they’ve commented on the delicious taste, calls a boy to bring on the heads of the flying foxes. It's said that bets are laid among the household before the meal as to which of the visitors will be first up in the scramble for the toilet. The pigs, birds and flying foxes, however, get little attention in comparison with the fish. The sea is the Samoan's preferred environment. Women work the lagoons and families can be seen tending huge fish traps, which they have laboriously set into the coral. These traps may have corridors lined with stakes and galvanised netting more than 100 yards long. They are so placed that they will trap fish returning from the tidal flats with ebb tide. When the tide is right you can see men skin-diving in the lagoons. There is no luxury such as flippers or a snorkel; just a pair of goggles, a shangai and a quar-ter-inch steel rod about three feet long and sharpened, on one end. They fire this with considerable accuracy at large and small fish. Beyond the reef you will see small outrigger canoes riding the heavy Pacific swell as the men work fine long rods, much like our trout rods, for school fish. At night, when there’s no moon, the reef beyond the lagoon is lit up by strings of canoes. Men with long, multipoint spears, and strong lights, work the reef for fish which are helpless when caught in the beam. Although usually very profitable in terms of a good catch, this type of canoe spotlighting is a dangerous way of fishing. The light is fixed on an angle on the side of the canoe. The fisherman drifts beside the canoe with his goggles breaking the surface. One hand guides the canoe and light and in the other he carries his spear. His head is just beside the beam of the Light. A type of swordfish is found near the reef and these fish are attracted to the light. So much so that they’ll sometimes rush for the light, breaking it with their sword. Fishermen have been speared in the face on such occasions.

They are also subject to a host of other dangers. There are extremely poisonous types of shellfish in the lagoons. Some even have the ability to sting. Coral scratches refuse to heal. There’s also the menace of sharks and huge tropical groper. But the Samoans give little thought to either.

Ask a Samoan fisherman what he’d do if he saw a large shark in the lagoon and he would tell you: “Get my spear and go after him as fast as I can.”