Sharks were caught using slip nooses however this was the final stage of a process that sometimes took days. First baked flesh wrapped in ti leaves was thrown into the water bundles at a time to attract the sharks. When a shark would finally show up it was fed as fast as it could swallow and would begin to come closer and closer to be fed.

Ancient Hawaiians could tame a shark by mixing 'awa, a narcotic root, into the bait.

At that stage bundles of liver basted with 'awa were were thrown out and the shark would be stupified with the 'awa. At this point it is being fed close to the side of a canoe where a noose can be slipped over the sharks head. The canoes would then paddle for shore where the share was run up into shallow water to be stranded and killed. The fisherman who slipped the noose over the head of the shark acquired great prestige.