A GIANT TUNA
NINE HOURS’ FIGHT
CATCH BY NIUE NATIVES
WELLINGTON, October 9,
How a giant tuna weighing 5071 b was caught on a handline by a native fisliennan of Niue Island after a fight for Clio' hours, during which the fish dived to 660 fathoms, has been, told by a resident - of the island, and the account sent to New Zealand by the Resident Commissioner (Captain VV. M. Bell), who vouches for the accuracy of 'the incident.
While, a native named Fakahoa was deep-sea fishing last month, a fish took the bait at 60 fathoms. It came to- the surface, dragged the canoe for about half a mile, and then dived. Fakahoa found that he was coining towards the end of his line, so he called one of his friends, and another length of line wag attached, but the fish continued its dive until three other lengths had been attached. The total length of the-line was more than 600 fathoms when the fish stopped its dive. No one had seen the fish on the hook, but it was thought to be a striped marlin, which is caught in large numbers at this tune of the year. Fakahoa knew that it would take seme hours for him to bring the fish to the surface; and after a long and strenuous struggle lie succeeded in getting it to 40 fathoms from the surface. There it dived again, stopping •af, 300 fathoms. It was' then six hours since the fish had taken the bait, and Fakahoa was worn out by the struggle, so he gave the line to a friend. The latter was assisted by a number of others and they managed to bring the catch to the surface at 5 p.ni-., nine hours after it had been booked.
The fish was not a marlin, as ivas expected, but a monster tuna, which weighed 5571 b. Could the fish have been weighed at the water’s edge it would have scaled considerably more, as a large quantity of blood was lost in taking it. to the weighing machine. From tip of the nose to the tip of the tail the tuna measured eight feet; With the greatest girth six feet. The canoe used was .the ordinary single outrigger type, left 6in in length and lit 2in wide. * '
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19331016.2.66
Bibliographic details
Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1933, Page 8
Word Count
384A GIANT TUNA Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1933, Page 8
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in