Gargur bafi is a kind of handicrafts specific to cities by the sea in the south of Iran. The Gargur, that in the local dialect of Hormozgan are called “Kelgar”, are cages with a dome like top, and act as one sided funnels. They are used to trap the fish, which enter them but are unable to leave. The fishermen use remains of other fish or their previous hunting to lure the fish into the Gargur. In the past, a Gargur was made of branches of Palm or “Gaz” (Tamarix) trees.

The wooden Gargurs could only trap big fish, but they were not specifically resistant and were destroyed in a few months due to decay. To make a Gargur, first branches of Palm trees were cut from the tree, and again cut in middle by a knife. They were then soaked in the sea water to gain flexibility. Now they wear ready to be turned into Gargurs. Making these cages from tree branches was a hard and time consuming process. However, by introduction of thin metal wires in the markets, the wooden branches became obsolete and the fishermen began replacing the previous materials with metal wires. Now to make a Gargur, the wires were twisted with a specific distance, and formed the dome on the top. The bottom part is made in a circular form and permits the fishermen to open the full trap when they take it out of the water to get the fish.

Most of the steps in making the Gargurs are done manually and no machine is involved, and the only tool used is a kind of wire cutter. The Gargurs are made in different sizes which is chosen by the fishermen themselves. For example, a “Lenj”, a kind of trade boat, are spacious and can carry large Gargurs, unlike the boats that carry only small Gargurs due to little available space. Gargurs are efficient traps that can be used to lure various kinds of fish such as “Sang Shir”, “Hamur” or Redmouth grouper, “Shekh”, “Sorkhu” and etc. Another interesting note about the Gargurs is that it can trap fishes that live in depths of about fifty or sixty meters.