In 1599 in the harbour of Ternate Dutch voyagers observed a method of fishing utterly outside their experience: a fishing line suspended from a kite flown from a boat. Astonishing to Europeans it might have been, but nothing exceptional to fishing communities throughout the seas of the Indo-Pacific region. Infrequently sighted, rarely described, sporadically collected, the authors provide an indispensable account to the understanding of the gentle art of kite fishing: its locations, its methodology, and of the different designs of the kites in the sheltered waters of the tropical archipelagos of Micronesia, Melanesia and Indonesia.