Hawaiian Fishing Traditions

Celebrates the great fishers of ancient Hawai'i, known for attracting and propagating fish, inventing fishing techniques, and bringing in extraordinary catches. With knowledge of fishing areas and an array of implements that included hooks and lines, lures, nets, basket traps, poisonous plants, and spears, a fisher supplied his family or his ali'i with fish and shellfish from streams, fishponds, reefs, and ocean. Those that could supply large amounts of fish from ponds or catches at sea were believed to possess mana kupua, or supernatural power, to attract fish at will or make them multiply. Successful fishing implements, such as hooks or cowry shell lures became famous and were prized, passed on to heirs and sometimes fought over.

Page count: 154 b & w
Revised 2006
Size: 8.5 X 5.5 paperback