ABUNDANCE OF EELS.

Shannon News, 12 March 1929, Page 3

ABUNDANCE OF EELS.

HABITS IN NEW ZEALAND. POSSIBILITIES IN EXPORT. ' Among the many interesting- matters discussed by the conference of acclimatisation society rangers, curators of hatcheries and other officials, which closed in Wellington last week, was the possibility of an increasing trade in eels, lightening the toll these fish levy on trout. ; Mr Miller (Wairarapa) asked if it were not likely, in the event of a really lucrative' and extensive trade springing up in eels for export, the Treaty of Waitangi might not be invoked by the. Maoris to stop it. Mr A. E. Ilefford, chief inspector of fisheries, said that, at present there were no restrictions upon the catching of eels, nor upon their disposal. People could impartially bury, eat, or export them. A protest from the Maoris, if they could prove, the eels a really important source of supply, would no doubt be given'heed to. Mr Miller said lie had been asked to raise the question because it was possible to catch enormous quantities of eels at the mouth of the Wairarapa Lake when they made their annual migration to the sea, and the Maoris at that time took tons of them. In this down-river run of eels he had seen locwt. of selected eels taken in less than two hours. The eel the Maoris liked best was a small one which they called “hau,” though he was not sure of the spelling. These eels were some loin, in length, and strangely uniform in measurement and weight. They went, as he had ascertained from many measurements and weighings, exactly five to the pound. Such eels could not eat anything but eggs ox fry,-as their stomachs were only the size of a finger nail. There was not a quarter of an inch difference in the measurements of a dozen of them. These eels came across the sandy bar at the mouth of the lake in literally thousands of tons. '‘SLITHERING- MASS OF EELS.”

AH the Maoris had to do was to build a bank of sand across the shallow water, said Mr Miller, and in no time it was a slithering mass of eels. There was about a fortnight of this run in April, as far as he could remember. When that run was over, another kind of eel came along on a similar run. This one was bigger, about 2ft 6in. long. These were greeubaeked, and not wanted by the Maoris, who threw them into pits to stop them getting mixed with the variety they sought, which .had beautiful white flesh, and was excellent eating. The large eels, from 251 J) to 401 b., were not wanted at all by the Maoris. Mr Ilefford said he was convinced that the time would come .when every form of fresh water fish would be controlled both by the local authorities and the Government. It was sufprising to bear that eels of this size migrated to the sea, as they were told by the experts that eels went to _ the sea to spawn. The two runs might be accounted for by the fact that the eel was very different in the matter of sizes in regard to the sexes. The opinion was expressed by Mr Hefford that Mr Miller had seen two different kinds of eels. The male esl always migrated before the female eel, and what was to be seen at the outlet of Lake Wairarapa was the male run of one species of the two which Professor Schmidt believed to exist in New Zealand, followed a little later by the run of the , males of the other species. The Maoris might have seven varieties of eels, all with different names, but, this might be purely a matter of sex or colouring, according to the streams in which the eels lived. REMARKABLE PHENOMENON. Mr Main (Timaru) told of a phenomenon he had seen on the sea beach the year before the war. A black shadow on the water made him look at the sky, which was eloudlesa, and lie realised that a- great migration of some kind of fish was taking place. Eels came up out of the-sea on to the beach for several chains, returning to the water when they} -came to Uie steep. portion. They were literally being forced out of the sea by millions of eels behind them. He killed and opened six of them, and found every one full of parasite worms. He had one full of parasite worms. He ha l seen similar migrations to those described by Mr Miller on lakes in the South.

Mr Evans (Southland) said that a man had sent eels from Lake Alexandrian to Europe. He had also' tanned the skins of the big ones, which made excellent leather. Mr Yerex remarked that 700 tens of eels went to Denmark alone annually, and Mr Hcfford said that eels were the most, highly-prized article of food in Germany, where they were a delicacy. Eels were, in fact, one of the best of foods. Professor Schmidt, of the Dana, had shown him a strong eelskin wallet.