Manihiki Magic - Glass Float

From Manihiki to Rarotonga

The anniversary of our arrival to Manihiki has just past on April 10^th. What an incredible year it has been. Rarotonga – Aitutaki – Manihiki – Rarotonga – Auckland - San Francisco – Frankfurt – Hamburg – Nice – Hamburg – Shanghai – Auckland – Rarotonga. Back home in lovely Tupapa after a 6.5-month adventure around the world. Time flies and I sure hope that the four of us will remember the important bits and do the moments justice.

We are particularly grateful for little reminders of our time in Tukao. One of those, thanks to Papa Tobia Junior, is now proudly hanging on our porch in Tupapa: an original glass float from the lagoon of Manihiki. This post is about how the glass float rested over 20 years under the surface of Manihiki Lagoon, traveled the 1,000 km down south to Rarotonga and ended up in our home.

One of the old seeding houses of Tukao

 

A couple of months into our job cleaning up the lagoon of Manihiki of abandoned pearl farms, the team had the routine down nicely. It started with the early morning briefing and its cup of coffee. The locals interpreted as follows: one scoop of instant Nescafé, two scoops of Anchor’s powder milk and three scoops of white sugar. The taste is all in the stirring. Wonderful! The real connoisseurs added the milk later to avoid burning it with the boiling water. But hey, it is a long way off from a regular flat white that you are used to with your morning paper. Morning paper? One came in every two weeks. So no, no morning paper for us. Instead of learning about the news of the outside world we were eager to learn who was to work on the dive boat cutting lines and who was collecting rubbish on the debris boat for the given day. Needless to say, the job on the dive boat was the more popular one.

One of the best things about diving is the focus on your very own breathing. Once you have finished your briefing, prepped your gear, gave the okay to your buddy, rolled off the boat and entered the water, there is only one thing left to do: breath. It is funny how we do not pay attention to our breathing pattern at all while being on the surface but once you are in the water it makes all the difference. The calmer your breathing the better your air consumption, and the safer you are under water. Plus, it is time that you spend only with yourself – which is a precious moment when having a new born and a toddler! In this case we also had to get a job done but that was all part of the fun.

What did the job consist of? A regular pearl line is 220m long and anchored to the lagoon floor with two spring lines at each end and one anchor about every 20 meters. Our job was to cut the first spring line, work our way up wind and cut the individual anchor ropes until reaching the final spring line. My favorite moment was when I got to cut the final anchor and the whole line would start rising to the surface. It felt like a scene taken straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Debris, sand, little plankton and particles would drizzle off the line leaving a wonderful misty trail in the water column. It was a magical spectacle and I loved observing it under water. Once the last rope was cut the floats would bring the lines to the surface. Most floats were made of red plastic and Manihiki is full of them. They are everywhere: used in active pearl farms, floating away unused in old farms, on land underneath houses or in people’s back yards, and even used as party decorations.

Old floats just piled up at Mama Metua's - Tukao Bay

Once the dive team had cut the lines, the team on the debris boat would action the hydraulic winch to help them pull the debris onto the boat. That included mainly brittle ropes full of bio-matter – oysters and shells – but also floats and other farming equipment.

Old floats enjoying the view over our dive shop and the Prime Minister's residence in the background

 

New floats used a decoration for the Constitution celebration

Every now and then we entered areas in the lagoon where we worked on very old farms and discovered real treasures – glass floats. They are reminders of a long gone past with less or no plastic to harm our environment. On one of those particular days, I happened to be on the debris boat. If we were not careful there was the risk of the hydraulic winch breaking the floats as they were coming up from the deep. The man on the helm would call out “glass float”. We would manage to slow the howler down and get the float on board manually. My best guess would be that we got only about 10 of those glass floats out of the lagoon – not much considering that we cleaned up 233 tonnes of debris and organic matter in 6 months. In other words, glass floats are very rare.

At night I did a little research on the history of glass floats and came across this very interesting website. The link to Japan who started using glass floats in fishing as early as the 1910s must most likely be the reason why we find glass floats in Manihiki lagoon. Many of the best pearl technicians in the industry come from Japan.

Norway is believed to have been the first country to start production and use of glass fishing floats. Christopher Faye, a Norwegian merchant from Bergen, is credited for their invention in the early 1840s.

The first time these glass fishing floats are mentioned is in the production records for the Hadelands Glassverk (Glassworks) of Jevnaker, Norway, in 1842. The earliest evidence of glass floats actually being used by fishermen comes from Norway in 1844 where glass floats were on gill nets in the great cod fisheries at Lofoten. However, it is believed by some researchers and collectors that glass floats had already been in use in Norway and other Scandinavian countries for many years before this time.

Japan apparently started using the glass floats as early as 1910. By the 1940s, glass had evidently replaced wood or cork floats for a good percentage of deep-sea or large-scale commercial fishing operations throughout much of Japan, Europe, Russia, and North America.

Quote: https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/glass-fishing-net-floats/

Under the agreement with the Manihiki Island Council, we were not allowed to take anything away from the material that we removed from the lagoon. Every piece of farming material remained the property of the farmer or if they had moved off the atoll, their family or simply the person that “looked after” the farm. Nothing was to be taken away, including glass floats. My good friend and dive buddy Rino Mareko saw how much I liked this particular float and promised he would talk to the farmer to allow me to take it home. Otherwise it would be buried with the rest of the debris. The generous Tauhunu farmer is pictured here in the far-right corner of the table in a white shirt and cap. After we cleaned up his farm he showed the team his gratitude and shouted us a punnet of vanilla ice cream. What a treat! Meitaki Korereka for the ice cream and of course the float. Unfortunately, I do not know his name.

If anyone knows who the man in white is, please send him my regards!

So, if any of you Manihikians recognize his face, please send him my regards and thanks! And thanks again to Rino for sorting this out for me, it means a lot!

Rino & I showing off our treasure

Back at base, I removed the old netting and started cleaning up the glass float. Great fun for myself and Yann. It was such a great moment. This float had not seen sunshine in 20 years and was still in wonderful condition. And I did notice some imperfections inside the glass itself and would love to believe that it is actually made of recycled Japanese Sake bottles. At least that is a possibility according to the above quoted website. The authors write:

Most authentic floats have many bubbles and impurities (specks of carbon, firebrick, etc) embedded inside the glass.  They were typically made partly, or wholly, of recycled glass (waste glass, cullet)  from old bottles, including used Japanese Saki wine bottles.

Quote: https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/glass-fishing-net-floats/

Wouldn’t that be nice if my float actually contained the most exquisite Japanese Sake! I guess we’ll never know. 

Original float with its 20-year old net

The old float revealing its beauty and imperfections

My next mission was getting it back to Rarotonga. At the end of the project we would fly back to the main island with a small Air Rarotonga aircraft and had only a 10kg luggage allowance. There was simply no space on the aircraft for my float or I would have to leave my dive gear behind. Well, that I could simply not do. The float stayed behind our house in Manihiki. I looked at it every day before going the 30 meters down to the jetty to start my shift and thought: “Oh, well, you might just have to stay here.” But then, how it always seems to work out, if it is meant to be it will happen – island magic started to unfold.

The barge had finally arrived from Rarotonga and earlier than expected. The whole village was excited about news from the main island, some newspapers, new stock for the village shops and gas bottles for the stoves. Plus, our beer supplies and meat had arrived so we could have a real farewell party with the team! The Captain was so kind to let us get on board. When visiting the galley the cook, a young Fijian, even treated us to some Passionfruit ice cream (it might sound like we eat ice-cream all the time… but no! And that’s why it is worth mentioning how excited we were!). While eating our ice cream in the air=conditioned galley, a mate of mine from Rarotonga enters the room. Big hellos and what are you doing here?!? We didn’t have the time to catch up before our departure to Manihiki so he didn’t know we were this far up north. He had recently started working on the barge, so I wasn’t excepting him either to be here, still believing him working in Raro. How the float found its way back to our home in Rarotonga, well, you will be able to work out.

When we got back to Rarotonga and pulled into our driveway, got out of our car and walked up to our porch there she was – the beautiful green glass float from Manihiki lagoon – a true Manihiki Magic moment!

An old float. A new rope. The start of a great story.

 

Next challenge, dress the float to display it. Papa Tobia Junior (you know him from the Excalibur story) was back on Rarotonga as well and we caught up for a delicious Sunday afternoon BBQ and stories about Manihiki. His father had taught him back in the day how to weave the nets for the floats, so I asked him to show me how it’s done. Unfortunately, many of these old arts and crafts are starting to be lost for the next generations. Even Papa Tobia needed two attempts to get the net woven. He went home and picked up an old float that still had the rope basket around it. He copied that one off, for a wonderful result!

Tobia starting his Sunday project

Not too clean and precise in pattern and execution but we can see and feel the love. I asked him if he is passing on the knowledge to his grandson and he replied briskly: “No!” and I said: “Tobi? Why not? You have to!” He smiled like only he can smile. This warm smile that is in his eyes and he adds: “Because he never listens. But, of course, I am good at repeating so he will learn.” And he just cracks up at his own joke. Thanks heaps for sharing this art with me and my children. But we have to do it again too…  I have tried on my own. And even though I took plenty of pictures, listened and paid attention to your explanations, I cannot replicate your weaving. Sorry Tobi, but you’ll have to have patience with me too and teach me again, my friend.

Two generations apart focusing on the job. Hard work!

Now, three generations putting their hands (and brains) together to tie the knots.

 

Yann actually helping by pulling the rope in between knots

 

Tobia's biggest fan!

And there she is. Yann showing off our Manihiki treasure in Tupapa. Thanks to Rino Mareko, our good friend and helper in the local shipping industry and Papa Tobia. It reminds us every day that connecting with people is what makes this life in the islands so worth living. 

Yann - very proud of the result!