Pastures Past: Eels - delicacies, trout threats, and rare pets

Eels - not exactly your traditional pet. Photo / Karen Denyer

Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day.

There would not be many New Zealand children who have not had a go at catching an eel with a hook and a bit of old meat.

It was a favourite pastime in my family; catching an eel, cleaning it and then smoking it.

There was a time when eels were so popular that they would be caught and exported and they were a delicacy on restaurant menus.

However, they have always been a threat to the trout population and preyed on young ducklings as well.

Having them as pets is possibly a rare occurrence for Kiwi kids, but this made the news in 1946.

Large catch of eels

Great saving on trout

Wanganui Chronicle, January 13, 1937

More than 500 eels were caught by children at Selwyn Huts, Canterbury, in a drive organised recently by the Hutt Owners’ Association, to take the place of the New Year sports, which could not be held because of the restrictions of the health authorities.

The drive lasted from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A fishing expert estimated that the number of trout saved in a day by catching these eels would be at least 2000, estimating that on the average an eel eats four trout a day.

A large haul of eel . Photo / Paul Morris.

Eels also eat young ducklings.

A large influx of eels in the Cooper’s Creek area, and some excellent catches—including eels of 27lb. and 15lb. in weight—were reported by visitors to the Rangitata River and Cooper’s Creek areas.

It was stated that floods usually brought eels in large numbers to these regions: but this year the number had been much greater than usual and many large eels had been gaffed by sportsmen.

Eels prey on trout

“A slow-growing beast”

12in. Long in Eight Years

Poverty Bay Herald, March 17, 1938

One of the most serious threats to the existence of young trout fry is the eel.

Several items of interest concerning its life were given last evening to the meeting of the East Coast Acclimatisation Society by Mr. D. F. Hobbs, the Government biologist to the Freshwater Research Fisheries Department.

Mr. Hobbs advised that the depredations made by eels should be investigated thoroughly.

In the stomachs of small eels would be found small fry or trout and the larger the eels were the larger the trout eaten by them.

Eels and trout fed on much the same food.

Apart from competing for food, the eels were also preying on the trout.

Eels were only available to trout as food on rare occasions and an eel was seldom found in the stomach of a trout.

The larger and more financial societies were assisting the research in their investigations and a large-scale experiment was being carried out in Southland.

Endeavours to eliminate the eels from the rivers there were being carried out by the use of hinakis.

Mr. Hobbs said that eels were slow-growing beasts, being about two years’ old when they came into the rivers from the sea.

At the age of eight years they were only 12in. long so an indication of the age of some of the very big eels could be arrived at.

On account of that fact and the understanding that they usually frequented the same old feeding grounds it was thought that if the eels were completely cleared from a river it would retard their progress to such an extent that it might be another 15 years before they were established again in that river.

In reply to a question, Mr. Hobbs said that as long as it was not a cataract, eels could go up falls in a river, the same as trout.

He had seen them climb up a vertical wet wall that was covered with moss.

Eels exuded a slimy substance only when afraid.

Eels as food

Central Hawke’s Bay Press, April 20, 1946

Although eels have in the past received little consideration as a source of food, the canning of freshwater eels for export is proposed as a new industry in Southland, states Consumer News.

Various efforts to commercialise eels have been abandoned after trials.

Eels have been salted, frozen and canned, and from time to time consignments have been shipped to England, where there has always been a steady demand.

Frozen eels valued at £356 were exported to Australia in 1944.

Attempts to secure a market overseas have failed in the main because of the absence of professional eel fishermen and the problem embodied in the collection and transport of eels to a suitable depot.

The longfin eel can grow 2 metres long, and weigh more than 20 kg. Photo / Alton Perrie

Eels as family pets

Central Hawke’s Bay Press, April 26, 1946

People seldom tame eels for pets, but a Buller family has done just that.

At the same time each afternoon, they wash their separator gear in a creek running through their farm, and about a dozen eels are attracted to the spot.

The eels have become accustomed to the presence of these friendly humans, and play around them.

They lift their heads out of the water and bark and even allow themselves to be picked up.

The famous tame eels at Takaka, Nelson, have long been a source of wonderment, for eels usually prove to be very timid creatures.

As far as is known these are the only cases on record of eels becoming pets.

- Source: Papers Past