Scattered across the beach of a Bay of Plenty suburb are Kontiki fishermen who spend their retirement, vacations, and evenings sitting on the beach while they wait to pull their Kontikis, also called torpedoes, back in with their winch. The fishermen use the torpedoes to tow their line of up to 25 hooks about 1.5km into the Pacific Ocean. Many fishermen sell their boats and trade their busy lives to enjoy the peaceful beach with loved ones, by themselves, or with curious onlookers.
While catching fish is always the goal, pulling in sharks, sting rays, and other sea creatures always makes life more interesting. Local laws keep this sport from turning into a business by outlawing the sale of fish caught while using Kontikis in the bay, thus allowing the loyal fishermen to get the cream of the crop when it comes to fishing in the bay. The popularity of this form of longline fishing is very evident and by the attitudes of the fishermen it doesn’t look like it will be going away any time soon.