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Kōrero: Freshwater fish

The last grayling

Image
The last grayling

This is the last known record of fishing for the now-extinct grayling, on the Waiapu River on the East Coast in March 1923. The men are using a hīnaki (trap), which is weighed down with a rock. A net leads from stakes to the hīnaki, and rocks and mānuka brush form the walls that guide the grayling into the trap. On this occasion they took 30–40 fish. Māori knew grayling by many names, the most common being upokororo.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Ramsden Papers

Reference: 1/2-037936; F

by James Ingram McDonald

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Bob McDowall, Freshwater fish – Shy species, seldom seen, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/11099/the-last-grayling (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Bob McDowall, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.