Whitebait

New Zealand whitebait are very young fish that are caught during their migration into freshwater rivers after their larval stage at sea. They are caught near the mouths of rivers using a large, hand-held net. It's a seasonal activity with strict periods allowing the more common fish to be caught while sparing the less common species.

I recall as a child watching them being netted around jetty piles on the North Shore of Auckland. presumably prior to their returning to a freshwater river. There were so many of them, they were very inexpensive. Some would catch so many, they couldn't eat them all so would dig trenches in the garden and put them in as fertiliser. This was a practice that disgusted my parents, who felt it was wasteful and disrespectful of this bountiful resource.

Today you wouldn't see whitebait in anywhere near the numbers that were back then. It is now a delicacy and commands high prices to the point that when available it is the most expensive fish on the market. Many make quite a financial bonanza out of selling them. We know someone who catches whitebait but doesn't eat many nor sells them but occasionally passes some on to a few close friends. We happen to be of that number.

My wife turned our gift this year into fritters for a nice lunch treat. Below is a picture of that. Yes, we did enjoy them.