It's not known how the superstition got started but one theory has it that back in the 1700s when bananas were transported by creaky, leaky, top heavy wooden ships that when one went down with all hands on board, the only evil things left to mark the watery grave were floating bananas. 

Another conjecture from the same sea-faring era has it that when the huge clusters of bananas were hauled aboard the wooden boats and stored in the sweaty holds below, poisonous spiders, snakes and other vermin would crawl out from between the leaves and fruit and terrorise the crew. 

The most plausible explanation of the "bananas are bad luck" superstition, however, is the fact that bananas secrete ethylene gas as they ripen, which causes any other perishable food items in the vicinity to spoil more quickly.

So, the crew aboard an old wooden vessel, sailing between the tropics and England, would find itself cursed when it discovered its storehouse of nourishment suddenly rotten. 

Whatever the basis for the superstition, the fact of the matter is that bananas are definitely not welcome aboard on most fishing boats to this day.  

Members of Illawarra Fly Fishers on their July 4th meeting will host respected author, DVD producer and gun fly fisher, Peter Morse. Peter is an excellent speaker and his photography is superb and his talks are always very interesting. The meeting will be held as usual at Collegians Wollongong from 7.30pm.