Page, the 20th

We have two kinds of fish ponds or enclosures; fresh water ones, from half an acre to two or three acres in extent; and salt water ponds, generally very large and enclosing an area of many acres. The salt-water ponds are of two kinds; those entirely closed, and in which fish are fed and fattened, and those surrounded by a low wall that is submerged at high tide and has openings, walled on each side like lanes leading in or out of the pond.

 The lanes or fish-runs are from fifteen to twenty feet in length and radiate from the wall inside and out. They are of about two feet in width at the opening of the wall and widen out gradually till they are from eight to ten feet wide at the ends.

 At night when the tide is coming in, a man, or more frequently a woman takes a small scoop net just wide enough to fill the entrance of the opening and of three or four feet in depth, wades out to the entrance of one of these runs and sitting on a raised stone platform on its side, always made for that purpose, holds the net in the water at the entrance of an opening towards the sea, and sits very quiet until a jerk in the net is felt, when it is immediately pulled up before the fish have time to return, and the fish dropped into a gourd or basket when the net is immediately returned to the water and waiting and watching are resumed.

 Two persons generally go to this king of fishing and sit on opposite sides of the entrance, so that as one net is raised another is still there, and under certain conditions of the water and weather, two persons will be kept busy scooping up fish as fast as the nets can be lowered. No fish must be allowed to get free as that would 'put a stop to the fishing at that entrance during that turn of the tide.

 These entrances are favorite stations for the ground sharks of the neighborhood to prey on the fish as they go in or out, and so when the tide is about medium height, the fishing people return to shore, as their plat-forms would be entirely submerged [p.20] at high tide. At the turn of the tide and when the platforms are exposed, other parties take their turn at the lanes using those with entrances opening inwards.

These fish ponds, known as Umeiki [small drawing in] are sometimes owned by the proprietors of two, adjoining lands, the people of one owning the right to fish during the rise of the tide known as the Kai-ki, and the other during the ebb, Kaiemi. Long nets are also used in these ponds, but only during the condition of the tide belonging to each.

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Page, the 21st. 

The large salt or brackish water ponds, entirely enclosed, have one, two or four gates called Makaha. These are of straight sticks tied on to two or three cross; beams, the sticks in the upright standing as closely as possible, so that no fish half an inch in thickness can pass them, while the water and young fry can pass freely in and out Scoop nets the width of the gates are used at these places at the flow of the tide to scoop up such fish a, may be desired by the owner or pond keeper for family use. Then any large quantity is wanted, the long net, generally known as Upena-kuu, is used, the same as in shallow sea fishing.

 Fresh water ponds are very seldom over hall an acre in extent and are for O’opu and O’pae preserves, and sometimes for Awa, a kind of tropical salmon that breeds in brackish water and will live and grow fat in perfectly fresh water. The young fry of this fish is procured in shallow waters on the beach where a stream or spring of fresh water mingles with the sea, and is carried sometimes many miles inland in large gourds with water.

 The catfish has been introduced within four years and is doing well. Carp have also been introduced very recently, but it is yet too early to pronounce on the success or otherwise of the experiment.

Stocking Ponds

The upena pua is for young mullet fry for stocking ponds or for eating. This net is generally a piece, a fathom square, attached on two sides to sticks about three feet in length and pulled in, the bottom rope shorter than the upper one and forming an irregular square opening to a shallow bag, which is supplemented by a long narrow bag about three or four inches wide and two feet deep.

 The sea convovulus generally found growing on the beach is twisted, leaves, branches and all, into two thick bushing ropes some fifteen or twenty feet in length, and these are attached on each side of the net to the kuku (wide sticks). These lines are then drawn forward in a semi-circle sweeping the shoals of fry before them till enough are partly enclosed, when the two free ends are brought rapidly together in a circle which is gradually reduced, the same as in long net fishing, till the fry are all driven into the bag. [Beckly p. 12, 13]