Yellowfin Tuna

The natives of Pari Village have a legend of the origin of Tuna fish. For generations the men of this village have used traditional methods to catch this species that is usually caught in the open waters. This village have a bay where this species come to breed and that is when the catch them for food.

In the process to catch this fish the men go through alot of rituals fasting and separation from their wifes and children for the duration of the fishing season from August to December.

The story of this fish is handed down through story telling to the new generation.

Once apon a time a man and his wife lived at Taurama in Port Moresby,Papua New Guinea.They made gardens and fished for their living.One day the wife told her husband that she was pregnant.The husband was very happy because they were going to have their first child.Nine months after the husband went out fishing and the wife went to the beach to collect shell fish. While she was at the beach she went into labour and there was no one to help her however she manage to carry herself to the mangroves closeby where she delievered her baby.She was very surprised to find that she had triplets and the frighting thing eas that the babies were fish.She took the fish and cuddled them after all she was not scared of them as they were her children.She fed them with milk and put them in the sea amoungst the mangroves and went home. In the evening the husband returned to find her cooking yams and he gave the fish that he had caught to his wife to cook for dinner.At this time the husband realised that his wife was different and knew his wife had given birth so he asked his wife where the baby was.The wife started crying and told her husband that she had lost the baby and had burried it.The husband was very sad and felt sorry for his wife and comforted her.In the following days the wife would sneek out and go to the beach and feed her children.The husband became suspicius that his wife was going out every day. So one day he followed his wife hidding along the way so that his wife would not see him.The wife walked to the mangroves and broke a twig and the children came to her she took them one by one and breast fed them .After feeding them she put them back in the sea and went home.The husband saw what happened and return home but did not tell his wife what he saw.The next day he got his fishing spear and told his wife that he was going fishing.He went straight to the mangroves and broke a twig and all of a sudden he saw three big fish swimming to him and he got his spear and speared the biggest and the other two swam away.He took the fish home and found that his wife was not home so he cut the fish and cooked it.The wife went to the beach and broke a twig and was surprise to find only two fish she called and called but the third one did not come.She knew something had happened to her eldest baby.She fed the two and put them back in the sea and went home to find her husband at home.The husband told her that he had cooked dinner and he left her share in the kitchen so she can go and have her dinner.The wife went to get her food and was surprise to see that the fish her husband had cooked was her first born child.She cried and cried and the husband asked what was wrong.She told the husband that the fish was their baby the husband was very upset because she did not tell him earlier. Well the wife went back to the beach and call her children cuddled them and dressed them with yellow banana leaves and put them bach into the sea and told them to go out to the open seas and never come back as their was cruel.She made a vow that all men will struggle hard to catch it and they have to fast and follow rituals inorder for them to catch this fish. So be it .That is why the tuna has yellow fins which was the yellow banana leaves and always come to the place of birth in the hope that they will see their mother and that is when them men catch them. They has continued generation after generation until today.