Hinaki report

Hinaki (Eel pots)

Opening statement.

A Hinaki/eel pot is something you catch an eel with you would put it in a freshwater current or a stream to try and catch them .The hinaki has  to have bait in it or you won't catch any eel.

How to make hinaki.

Hinaki is handmade you weave it with flax it is handmade from our ancestors and then brought down to us.The best Hinaki was a work of art.A normal Hinaki was called Hinaki tukutuku and it only had one entrance ,when they without a weir the entrance faced downstream.The eels would smell the bait, and swim upstream to find it. Supplejack was also used, but it was a poor substitute. So we started to use flax.

Bait you need to catch eels with.

Hinaki were used with bait – often worms, or even birds. Bait was put in a small pot called a pu toke, which looked like a miniature hinaki, or a small flax bag called a torehe. At other times it was tied inside the hinaki. The Ngati Porou people would thread earthworms on a string and tie them to a piece of flax flower stalk, which floated inside the trap.

Hīnaki at eel weirs were used without bait.

Types on Hinaki.

A large type of hinaki, called hinaki tarino, was used in the Waikato River and its tributaries.

The hinaki waharua had an entrance at each end – waharua means ‘two mouths’.They were set in deep rivers or in lagoons. Temporary waharua were sometimes made of flax leaves and used in the Manawatu River.

Neither of these were used with eel weirs.

Closing statement

Hinaki are meant to catch eels because it is a eel trap but really some people just put it on the wall to make it art and other people use it for hang up for a light shade.

Tuna report

Tuna Report

Opening statement

The scientific name for Tuna/Eel is Anguilliformes. In maori the eel is known as the Tuna.There are fewer eels these days because of the loss of wetlands and historical commercial fishing practice.Their are two types of Tuna the long finn  and the short fin.

Appearance

When eels  are small they have smooth heads but when they grow up they start to get a bulbous head (Which means fat and round head).Eels are like fish they have scales and fins.But the long fins  top fin is longer than its bottom that's why it is named the longfin.Just because eels don't look like they have scales doesn't mean they don't have them tiny little scales are on the eels skin so you can't really see them but there.Some eels may look like snakes but there are 800 species of eels.

Breeding

Longfin eel only breed  at the end of their life.But when they want to breed they got to the subtropical ocean to spawn they probably go deep in the ocean holes.When they get to where they   need to go the females lay millions of fertilized eggs.The eggs or known as larvae looks like nothing they are transparent they are flat and they are leaf shaped and you can't see the properly.Some people say the freshwater eels travel 4,000 miles to breed.

Diet/Food

Eels are carnivores they are meat eaters they eat worms,snails,frogs,shrimps,mussels and other small fish.They mostly hunt for food at night.Now days eels have a technique to catch their pray they slither through 2 rocks to catch their prey.But when they  grow up eels start to eat prey that are bigger or as big as them.

Habitat

You will normally find eels in freshwater streams,rivers,lakes or if they are breeding you will find them in the sea water or on their way to the ocean.They normally hide in little burrows in the water or try and find little shelters or in the side on the river banks and in the mud.

Closing statement

Longfin eels can live up to 25 to 80 years old until they breed then die but the shortfin eels live up to 15 to 18 years and people should not eat longfin eels because they are toxic inside of them.There are a big loss of longfin eels because it is from the big loss of wetlands.