Catching Turtles.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1922, Page 1

Catching Turtles.

TORRES STRAITS Australia. Half a dozen semi-naked figures, strongly redolent of coconut oil’ lie quietly in tlio shadows of the tropic-fol-iage. The moon, shining down in gleaming

briliauey reveals the foam-crested waves gentry breaking in on to the sandy bench of the tiny islet at high tide. Presently one dark shape and then another come up out of the water and shuffle drngginglv across the beach to beyond liigli-water mark leaving a curiously defined trail behind them. The watchers, muscles alert, whisper to one another. Anw now the sound of swishing sand as the great turtles half-sitting, with two front “arms” (as the natives call them) balancing the body, scoop out a. nest for the eggs they have come to deposit. Alternately to right and left the two. hinder flippers . work. The hole is nearly two feet deep now. Satisfied, the umvieldlv creatures cease, action and begin to deposit their store, to he left for the warm sun to hatch out in due course. There is a quick rush a short struggle as the natives take firm grip of the flippers, and—then, the turtles are on their hacks, helpless. This process is repeated until perhaps TO or 50 turtles, each weighing a couple of hundred weight or so, are turned. With the morning flight they arc hauled out to the luggers and canoes anchored tflose-hy some guided by hoys sitting astride the great backs. Sail is set. and hack fo the islands go the boats with their freights of “meat” for some big death feast or Christmas celebration. Turtles are very numerous in the wafers of the Torres Straits and form the chief “meat” supplies -of the islanders. During the nor’-west monsoon, when they come up to the sandbanks to deposit their eggs, they are capttired in the manner described ; hut in the mating season, as they float upon the wafer. the islanders secure them with harpoons or by jumping overboard and rapidly attaching a line to one of the flippers. Another method of turtle fishing,.not so much in vogue, was by means of the sucker-fish. This, carefully attached by its tail to a line, was thrown overboard when a turtle was sighted and immediately attached itself to the creature’s hack, going down with it as it dived. The hunter himself then dived down, ■guided by the line, and secured the turtle, which was then hauled up. Only the green turtle is generally eaten. the “shell” turtle, a smaller variety, has to be cut up with great caution owing to secretions which produce poisoning if the work is done by an amateur. Turtle eggs are a much-prized delicacy. Shaped like ping-pong halls, with white, leathery skins, anything up to a couple of hundred of them may lie found in one nest. They should be boiled in salt water to obtain the full flavour and to clear the eggs of any taste of “mustiness.” The Torres Straits islander guides his lurtling operations by tho stars. A certain constellation warns him that the mating season is approaching; another set of stars- informs him “turtle he close up come for make egg now.’