Job lot: The taxidermist

By GRAHAM REID

Barry Donovan, 31, married with three children. Living in Russell but formerly an Auckland jeweller. He is new to taxidermy so his income is difficult to determine.

You're in the telephone directory under taxidermists, but you aren't a traditional taxidermist.

Basically, we're there because that's what people look for. That's what everyone puts us under and that's what I put on the tax return. I think we're under leather workers for ACC, though.

But you don't stuff animals, you make fibreglass replicas.

Yes, and it's just fish, mainly saltwater. I take a fibreglass mould and then put a fibreglass back into that, like a reverse mould. Then I paint it to make it look like a live fish.

If you are putting fins on you take them off and mould them separately and reassemble it. We pour a mould in the throat as well because we have the mouth open. I try to make it look like it's live and looking aggressive.

Presumably people can't eat their fish after you've done this.

The fibreglass pretty much cooks the fish. If I've got huge amounts of fish there's an organic farmer who takes it away afterwards and renders it down for
fertiliser.

How did you get in to this?

I bought this business about 16 months ago off a friend. I'd watched him and was always fascinated by it. I'd done a bit of fibreglassing and boat repair over the years and when I took over he stayed on for a couple of months and trained me.

He showed me how to lay up the colours and where to get the special paints. Some are very expensive. There's one tin here, which is not quite a litre, that's about $90.

I've got a big shed for storage of the moulds and tools like grinders, compressor, drills and paintguns and clamps.

Are these mostly for private individuals or for hotels and trophy rooms?

I just did a full marlin for the Tikipunga Tavern, but mostly they are for private individuals — although a good percentage end up in a club or pub. People like to show them off. The guy before me did most of the stuff for Te Papa and they wanted flounder and kawhai and all sorts of little things. I've also done a snake eel for the Whakatane Museum.

What sizes of fish do you create replicas of?

The one for Tikipunga was about 240kg which would be close to the biggest. I got a 5kg kingfish which is a nice fish but pretty small — it was caught on a 4kg trout fishing line, light tackle stuff.

Is it expensive to have a catch turned into a trophy?

Ninety per cent of the time people baulk when you tell them how much it'll be. They don't realise you don't just take a fish away and the next day you've got a fibreglass one. We do any size of snapper for $620, plus GST. We have a basic thing for the marlin: if it's a head mount it's $700, plus $2 for every kilo. If it goes way over 200kg we'll knock it off at that.

I try to get them as fresh as I can and take a mould. I love the colours. I take time to study the fish when they are alive to pick up every detail and change of colour and eye shades.

Game fisherman, as soon as they get one or even if they tag and release, will get photos or video footage which is good because that's when the colours show up.

So even tag and release people can have a trophy.

Yeah, a lot of guys do plaster moulds off the fish because its quicker and cheaper. If I do a fibreglass mould I can get four or five copies out of one mould, I can keep it and use it again.

For instance, a guy caught a big broadbill and sent me the bill. He wanted three copies. I had a broadbill head mould here, about half a kilo difference from his, so he ate his and I did a copy of my one and attached his bill to it.