Report No. 3 (1921). ' 



MANUFACTURE OF FISH OIL 



AND GUANO 



BV 



SiR F.A. NICHOLSON, K.C.I. E., 



Late Honorary Director, Gover?iment Fisheries, Madras. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



On the West Coast of the Madras Presidency, the Cliipea longiceps 

 or " nalla matti " appears in numerous and sometimes very large 

 shoals between August and June. This small fish is known as the 

 " oil sardine," since from August to perhaps February — varying 

 very greatly according to season and locality— the adult fish are 

 generally fat, often yielding from 10 to 15 per cent of oil when 

 boiled and pressed in mere manual presses; even larger yields 

 have been obtained on small parcels of very fat fish : at the 

 Beypore Cannery these fish are frequently canned "plain," i.e., 

 without oil or sauces, and in a can containing 7 oz, nett of fish it is 

 not uncommon to find in the can half an ounce or so of oil which 

 has exuded from the fish during processing. On the other hand 

 there are years in which these fish are mostly young and lean, 

 when the percentage of oil is but small, and in every year a large 

 proportion of the shoals, especially after January, is hardly worth 

 treating so far as the yield of oil is concerned. 



The Cliipeu fimbriata (chala matti) and Clupea lilc are useless for 

 this manufacture, nor is any other fish available except sharks, 

 mostl} small, for small quantities of liver oil. 



The oil sardines are found to some extent about the same season 

 of the year on East Coast north of Cocanada, but nothing definite 

 is at present known about them. 



On the West Coast shoals occur from Trivandrum (Travancore 

 State) to Coondapur, and it is believed that they are equally or still 

 more abundant on the continuation of the coast in the Bombay 

 Presidency. South of AUeppey, however, the shoals apparently do 

 not appear in quantities sufficient to render oil and guano manu- 

 facture possible ; indeed Cochin seems to be almost the useful 

 limit for such operations. From Ponnani northwards the fish 

 become abundant, and the South Kanara Coast seems particularly 



