Cunning Fish Trap

Any sprat that strayed in here would have found themselves in a very spiky spot. This cunning little fish trap from Papua New Guinea is made from lengths of thorny stems from a creeper plant which have been woven together to form a cone shape. All the thorns point towards the apex where bait can be attached. Once the trap is secured in the water by a fibre cord fish can easily swim in and reach the bait, but when they turn to leave they are caught by the thorns. According to an attached label the trap was collected from the Pangoa area, in the Western Province, but just how it arrived into the museum remains a mystery. It is part of a relatively small collection of items from the Pacific Islands cared for by Puke Ariki.