No Bananas: A Superstition in Fishing
On longer trips, these pests would spread out on the boat, which made the crew correlate these unwanted creatures with the bad luck bananas. One spider in particular posed a big problem while out on the sea. The Brazilian Wandering Spider, also known as the Banana Spider, is not only the most poisonous spider in the world, egg sacks can be transported on bananas. Luckily for bananas, another reason they where considered bad luck is easily proven with science.
When launching the boat the owner forgot to remove the back straps and asked me to remove them while the boat was still in the water. Needless to say I fell into the credit croc infested waters. (Found out next day a 4 metre croc had been spotted There the day before. ) Mile’s from nowhere I caught a good sized Barra with a huge three trebble lure that immediately impaled my mates bare foot. The fish was thrashing on the deck ,my mate was screaming and all I had to operate with was my trusty Leatherman and a band-aid. Just come back from a week of hard core Barra fishing at Rockhampton Qld and Lake Awoonga QLD. They are based on years of banana research and interviews with fishermen from all over the world who claim bananas are bad luck on fishing boats.
So they would find the wreck and all the floating bananas would only make the myth more true by the time it got back to dock. The squishy slippery feeling startled me and I dumped my cell phone straight into salt water. Bananas release methane gas as their juices ferment, which isn’t inherently toxic unless it replaces oxygen in an enclosed space (like a ship’s hold). Methane gas is also flammable and can self-combust.
Were they really bad luck, or were they actually just bad for the health of the crew? Let’s take a look at some of the hazardous, inconvenient, or even innocent things bananas did that gave them a bad name. It sounds silly, but it’s a superstition that’s so old and ingrained in fishing and boating culture that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what inspired it. There are many theories, all of which work together to explain the real-life dangers of the banana that turned it into a symbol of bad luck. Whether you believe in superstitions or not, it was hard to ignore the wild amount of fishing nightmares and instances of bad luck where bananas were on board the boat. Not to mention, the stories the sailors came back with to their families and friends involved the mention of the “bad luck bananas”, furthering the “No Bananas on Board” superstition.
Scale doesn’t bother me at all, the only superstition I follow is NO BANANAS ON THE BOAT! Not sure why but I’ve been on 20 ocean fishing trips and all the different guides are in agreement, I’m not superstitious but no point in testing something that prominent 👍🤞
— Trish (@catfishtrish72) June 24, 2020
Clear skies, only a 20% chance of rain , and we were riding in our dad’s 3-year old 21ft custom flats boat made by Release. Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of fisherman, thereby “spooking” the fish. Fisherman misses landing the big one due to a case of “the runs” caused by bananas he’d ingested.
If they were too slow, the bananas would start to rot, filling the ship with an awful smell. If they were fast enough to save the fruit, the boat moved too quickly for the crew to be able to catch any fish to eat — likely inspiring the notion that bananas on board were bad for fishing. Bananas are Bad LuckUsing bananas as a symbol for bad luck is a little unfair, but there is a bit of an argument here for keeping them overboard. Spiders, snakes, and other vermin share a habitat with bananas, so they often made it on board with the fruit.
Almost blending into my black granite counter were two shriveled up, completely black, almost morphed together into one banana, rotten as can be, smelly bananas. But it wasn’t any of these culprits that were causing the wretched smell in my house. It has also never had any livewell or bilge pump issues again, even though the boat is 14 years older. And of course, we had no serious rain gear as we didn’t anticipate any rain according to the weather forecast that day . It gets worse, clients have been asked to remove garments purchased from The Banana Republic or anything with the words or images of bananas printed on them.
Dion Liriano is a 51-year-old American zookeeper who has retired from the business. He was once a highly successful director of the Zoo and Aquarium, but he has since hung up his gloves and moved on to other ventures. Dion's passion for animals began at a young age, when he would help his father care for their family pets. This love grew exponentially when he started working at the zoo; Dion quickly became one of the most experienced keepers in the business. He credits his success to the relationships he built with both staff and animals over the years.