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Story: Whitebait and whitebaiting

Whitebaiting camp

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Whitebaiting camp

A Māori whitebaiter holds a trap which looks to have been woven from flax, with a supplejack frame. This tapering net, with a wide mouth and narrow end, was the model that Europeans used. In the late 1800s many Māori adopted European scrim netting as an alternative to their labour-intensive traps.

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Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira

Reference: 318

by Charles Spencer

Permission of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Whitebait and whitebaiting – History and conservation, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/11696/whitebaiting-camp (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 1 March 2009.