I06 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIlI, 



fishing canoes will remain at sea as long as they have an insufifi- 

 cient catch or hopes of more ; hence the cannery is apt to lose the 

 best part of the working day and the freshest fish unless it has 

 one or two carriers, which, however, need not ordinarily be motor 

 carriers, but merely light, well manned canoes. It is, however, 

 possible to fit light canoes with small motors which can be used 

 when necessary ; motors are made which are readily detachable 

 and can therefore be unshipped when not needed or can be trans- 

 ferred to other boats. Another reason for employing carriers is 

 that the fish are thrown into the bottom of the fishing canoe to die 

 slowly of suffocation, and are bruised by the movements of the 

 crew and by the weight of other catches thrown on them. Now 

 since the sardine is a delicate fish and since the struggles of 

 slow suffocation cause a tendency to rapid degradation of the 

 tissues and consequent early taint, and since the lower layers of 

 fish are often bruised and soft, it is frequently necessary, in the 

 absence of special carriers, to buy only the upper layers ; hence 

 not only delay and loss of good working hours, but a shortage 

 of fish. 



149. The carriers should be so arranged that the fish shall be 

 protected from injury en route, e.g., by having proper boxes or 

 baskets to hold the fish ; also protection from sun and, if possible, 

 a little ice so as to keep the temperature below 60° F. ; this will 

 keep them good for some hours. It is for consideration whether, if 

 ice is impossible or the shore distant, the carrier should not be big 

 enough to have a central well in which live sardines can be placed, 

 with communication, by gauze covered holes, with the sea ; if the 

 fish are dead the sea communication may be closed and the fish 

 kept in a bath of 5 percent salt water (sea water slightly strength- 

 ened with salt) with a small quantity of boric acid or of some other 

 innocuous fish preservative such as Keeps, Arcticanus, Preservaline 

 (American), Neutraline (French ; sodium sulphite, used in America 

 for blanching fruit and also for preservation of goods intended for 

 canning), sodium hypochlorite, etc., in order to inhibit (delay) 

 putrefaction ; it is better to prevent putrefaction even by preserva- 

 tives when innocuous, than to permit the chance of it. It is also 

 possible to place live fish in a separate live car which may be 

 towed behind the canoe carrier. 



150. Assuming that the fish are brought fresh to the cannery 

 they are at once beheaded and gutted by a gang of women and 



