Paua in Maori Legends

One of the Maori tales tells us of the legendary Maui fishing trip. Maui was a demigod mentioned in many Maori legends. In this fishing trip Maui used a magical fishing hook made from Paua shell and some other ingredients to pull from sea depths the land, which is now called New Zealand. You can read more about Maui in my article titled King of New Zealand’s Mythology. But in this article I would like to tell you about Paua – one of the New Zealand’s icons.

Paua in the Science

The scientific name of Paua is Haliotis iris. It is a marine mollusk famous for its overflowing pearl shells. Paua lives only in New Zealand’s coastal waters. Paua belongs to Haliotidae family or simply abalone (”sea-ear” or “ear shell”). More than one hundred different types of mollusks of this family are thermophilic, and live near the American Pacific coast, African coasts and Mediterranean Sea. But only New Zealand’s Paua has a unique mother-of-pearl sink.

On the following image you can see Paua with half of its shelf polished. Notice the unusual pattern of colors, which makes Paua so unique.

Origin and family of Paua

Names of mollusks from the Haliotidae family differ between countries. As I already mentioned they called Paua in New Zealand, Baui in Burma, Avabi in Japan, Ormier in UK and France, Ear Shell in Australia, and Perlemon in South Africa. In the west a name abalone or sea-ear is most common. Though these mollusks differ slightly from each other in every country, they still belong to one family. All of them are ear-shaped with small holes near the outer edge of the shell, living in coastal waters.

In order to resist the waves abalone developed a “leg” which sticks so firmly to the rocks that you can’t detach it without using a knife. They eat algae and microorganisms through the “mouth area” and in the same area they have gills for breathing. Sea-ears can be males and females but they have an external fertilization. In spawning period mollusk throws out thousands or even millions (depending on body size) eggs, but only one percent of them reaches puberty. Being sedentary mollusks, Sea-ears nevertheless commit daily and seasonal migration in search of food and to escape from their enemies such as fish, crabs, octopus, sea stars and some carnivorous snails.

Paua as beauty and delicacy

Paua has the most colorful sink in the world, and other mollusks from Haliotidae family can’t compete with its shine and beauty. After polishing, Paua sink’s colors vary between green, pink, blue and Purple. Some Paua have even golden shells and dark shades of red. These colors make Paua shells an attractive material for different crafts. Maori traditionally use Paua shells for encrustation of their products. The carving art of Maori goes back many ages, and since they didn’t have writing for a long time, they used to express themselves through different, very interesting and beautiful ornaments. Paua craft products are still valuable: jewelry and other crafts are still being made using Paua shells.
Once there was a house in town of Bluff was a whole house decorated with 1170 Paua shells. Now these shells are displayed in Canterbury Museum.

However Paua are not only beautiful, they are also very tasty and was very common in Maori diet. Reaching the size of steaks, after a special preparation the Paua meat is a delicacy. The special Maori preparation of Paua consists of burying it in the ground for several weeks in order to soften it. Paua also has healing properties – it is reach in minerals, vitamins and proteins, which improve the overall health and tonus of the human body, improve the work of the heart and immune system.

Protecting Paua

Nowadays there are strict quotas on gathering Paua. Paua under certain size can’t be taken from the sea, people aren’t allowed to use diving equipment when gathering Paua and other restrictions are applied. Nevertheless there are plenty of places in New Zealand where you can buy a Paua jewelry and eat Paua delicacies.

Click on the thumbnail to view larger photo.