Il6 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XV, 



writer shows that there is little or nothing to be done to obviate 

 the recurrence of barren years. Science in this has been proved 

 helpless in the face of the annually recurring monsoon. 



The Fresh-ivater Fisheries administered by the department rank 

 second only to the chank fisheries in regard to the handsome 

 profit they return to Government. They show continuous yearly 

 increase in the revenue obtained and there is every prospect that 

 this satisfactory feature will continue concurrently with the exten- 

 sion of operations. These fisheries consist largely of waters in 

 which the fishing revenues were assigned to district authorities 

 years ago for local needs. The new owners did nothing to effect 

 improvements, the fishery rents being sold for what they would 

 fetch. The Fisheries Department has now initiated a scheme 

 whereby irrigation tanks and other inland waters are surveyed 

 district by district, and those found suitable are arranged in 

 groups round centres where fish-breeding and rearing are carried 

 on, and whence each year fry are removed in large numbers to 

 reinforce the natural stock in the linked tanks. The fishing rights 

 and revenues in these are being re-acquired gradually by Govern- 

 ment, compensation being given on the average revenue of the 

 preceding five years to the local authorities, who now have neither 

 trouble nor risk in collecting this money. The profit made by 

 Fisheries is the difference between the compensation thus paid 

 and the revenue obtained from the fish sales after the working 

 expenses of the annual restocking are deducted. The net profits 

 on these inland fisheries during the last three years have been 

 Rs. 20,573, Rs. 21,331 and Rs. 22,613, respectively. Within a short 

 time from now the operations of this section will be enormously 

 increased, for Government have agreed to the whole of the suitable 

 tanks in the Presidency coming under the department's care 

 eventually. In IQ20 they approved of a detailed scheme for the 

 organization of the most important tanks in the -Nellore and 

 Chingleput districts, whereby 135 tanks have come directly under 

 the control of the department. The tanks of the Ganjam district 

 have recently been surveyed and before long the whole Presidency 

 will be covered and their inland fisheries set upon a suitable 

 basis. 



To render successful this fish-stocking of inland waters much 

 patient research and experiment have been necessary ; results have 

 suffered from the lack of any estuarine and fresh-water research 



