Huni Goes Night Fishing

Loueni Huni learned to fish from his father when he was 9 years old. His father would take him beyond the reef at night to get fish for the family. Huni learned to dive down to where the fish were "sleeping". It is a lesson he learned well.

Pictured to the left is Huni with the spear gun he made. The gun handle was given to him by a friend. Huni attached a metal rod which he had shaped with a pointed end. The rope attaches to the trigger. When he has the fish in his sights, he aims for the eye and squeezes the trigger. The spear "flies" through the water and pierces the fish. Hand over hand, he brings the rope and spear back and readies it for the next fish.

Huni in pictured taken from Mormon Newsroom

Huni has taught others to fish. He tells of a family where the men could not provide for the family. Huni took them fish to eat. After taking them food a few times, he told them they needed to learn to fish. Huni took them fishing and the men learned to fish. Now they always have food. "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."  Huni has been fishing for 57 years. During this time, he has provided food for not only his family but many others. He has truly been a fisherman for the poor.

I told Huni sometime we would like to go with him when he went night fishing to see him enter the water in the dark. This week he told us he was going fishing. He was picking up a friend in Vaini. He is teaching him to fish. Could his wife (Nunia) drive to Navutoka with us? He would leave his car at Navutoka to drive home when they finished fishing. We would take Sister Huni home. 

Huni and his friend put on  hoodies to help against the cold for the hours they would be in the water. They put on their weight belts, masks and snorkels. They tied their "coolers" to their belts. On the end of the cooler, they put 2 wires which would be used to slip the fish off the spear and into the cooler. They then sat on the shore and put on their flippers. Holding flashlights and spears, they smiled at us, and headed out into the ocean. Tonight they were not going far beyond the reef, but other times Huni will swim from island to island, 20+ miles, in search of fish to give to the poor.

It was scary watching them enter the water, knowing the sharks swim these waters, even though Huni says "the sharks are my friends." 

One day last week, Huni told us of his fishing trip the night before. "Sister, I went fishing last night. When I had been fishing for some time and had many fish, I felt something was following me. I ignored it, I kept fishing. I felt it again. I turned around. There was a big shark. We were face to face. I wasn't scared.  I just looked at him. He looked at me. Finally the shark turned around." -- The Lord protects this man who always is thinking of others. He was fishing to give food to the poor; the Lord made this shark turn around.

Genesis 9:2-3   And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered... Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you...