REPORT 



ON THE 



FEASIBILITY OF OPERATING DEEP-SEA FISHING 



BOATS ON THE COASTS OF THE MADRAS 



PRESIDENCY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 



TO THE SELECTION OF FISHING 



CENTRES AND HARBOURS 



OF REFUGE, 



BY 



JAMES HORNELL, f.l.s. 



[Three plates.] 



The advantages likely to accrue to the fishing industry 

 from the introduction and extended use upon the coasts of the 

 Madras Presidency of larger sized fishing boats from 10 tons 

 register and upwards in size, have been so exhaustively detailed 

 by Sir F. A. Nicholson in two reports to Government 

 (February 1906 and May 1908) that it is superfluous to do 

 so here. 



2. It will suffice therefore if I recapitulate the four heads 

 under which these advantages have been grouped in the papers 

 referred to. 



They are four in number, and are as follows : — 



(a) To take crews safely and comfortably into the further 

 waters of the fishing grounds and to allow them to stay there 

 for some days, following and catching the shoals ; 



(b) to allow the use of better and more powerful nets 

 and lines ; 



(c) to save time, to lessen the number of hands, increase 

 freedom of action, and to permit of the use of mechanical 

 appliances to save labour and increase efficiency ; 



(d) to enable means to be taken by the fishermen to 

 ensure the proper preservation of fish from taint from catch 

 to shore. 



3. Mr. Sullivan Thomas in the Proceedings of the Board 

 of Revenue, 21st August 1886, No. 1887, has also stated his 

 opinion that the principal means to arrest an assumed growing 

 scarcity of fish on the Madras Coast is the same remedy as has 

 been applied in England, viz., "to have better appliances, 



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