THE LAMPREY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22114, 18 November 1933, Page 9

THE LAMPREY

TO THE EDIT OR. Sir, —In your issue of to-day a correspondent who signs himself “ Whangdoodle” writes that “ it could not be said that the lamprey is plentiful in the South Island.” Ido not think that he can have been many days in New Zealand. All the rivers in the South Island are full of lamprey. At a certain time of the year, about September, the lampreys have stopped the great water wheel that drives the paper mill: at Mataura through the great number of them that have clung to the wheel. At'Outran a spot known to the Maoris as Te Kirikiri is a great place for them, and the Waikouaiti, Waianakarua, Temuka, and other rivers are full of them. Ido not say always, but at the proper months. —I, am, etc., A Ma6ri Who Knows. November 17. TO the editor. Sir, —In . your issue of . to-day two letletters appear in reference to lamprey being caught in Otago streams prior to 1883. When staying at Captain Mac-, kenzie’s Glenkenick Station, near Tapanui, on two occasions I saw lamprey that had been caught in the Waikoikoi below the bridge between Glcnkcnick and Conical Hills Stations. —I am, etc., Dunedin, November 17. P. S, B. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —When a statement appeared in your issue of the 14th inst. to the , . . effect that it was claimed that the first South Island lamprey had been caught at Ashburton, it was so absurd and incorrect that I ignored it. As so many people interested in fish have asked me as to thj reliability of the statement, I feel I should pass on the information in my possession. Forty years ago local seine fishermen .caught large numbers of lampreys while seineing at the Kaik, much to the delight of the Maoris, who considered them a great delicacy. F.ven this morning Kaik fishermen stated that they still catch lampreys. I have taken them from the stomachs of ling and red cod. Many country correspondents have written to me to the effect that they have seen occasional lampreys in the local creeks and rivers. One went so far as to offer to supply me with as many live lampreys as I wished for aquarium research purposes. The lamprey, although belonging to the same class as the blind eel or hagfish, is a different fish and of another family.—l am, etc. David H. Graham. Dunedin, November 17.