96 



Again, it is the unanimous statement of fishermen that while 

 they find the shoals come close inshore from the end of Septem- 

 ber till the middle of February, from about the latter time till 

 the end of the season's fishing the shoals are found farther 

 from the coast, a change which synchronizes with the onset of 

 strong north-westerly winds which blow in February and 

 March causing the sea to be turbid for a considerable distance 

 from the shore. The sardine fishing grounds from July to the 

 end of September are also rather further seawards than those 

 from October to February. 



68. It is very significant to note that during the period 

 from October to February practically no current is felt close 

 inshore along the South Oanara and Malabar Coast line ; the 

 wind at this season is a land breeze so that a band of wonder- 

 fully still water, varying from two to three miles in width, 

 skirts the coast under ordinary conditions. In this neritic zone 

 in response to strong sunshine, the semi-stagnant physical 

 condition of the medium and the rich mud bottom, a pheno- 

 menally luxuriant growth of diatoms springs up as though 

 by magic, followed by prodigious swarms of tiny crustaceans 

 (copepods, ostracods, phyllopods, etc.) and worms that feed on 

 the diatoms and on one another and in turn become rich food 

 for larger organisms. I am fullv convinced that to feed on 

 this apparently inexhaustible banquet and to give their fry a 

 well-fed start in life are the two great reasons that impel our 

 sardines to come close inshore during years of favourable weather 

 conditions. Examination of the stomachs of the fish, comparison 

 of the contents w r ith the nature of the plankton collected by 

 our tow-nets, together with a daily study during five weeks 

 spent at sea on the sardine coast of the coincident presence of 

 sardines and particularly rich aggregations of certain forms 

 of plankton whenever physical conditions conduced to an 

 enormously rich and rapid growth of such organisms, have 

 left no room for doubt in my mind as to the reason for the move- 

 ment close inshore of sardines during such weather and current 

 conditions as we had in October, November and December 1908. 



69. Food of sardines. — On the surface of the muddy deposit 

 which forms by far the chief proportion of the sea bottom both 

 in the shallows and up to depths of 30 fathoms everywhere off 

 the Malabar and South Canara coasts, a dense flocculent growth 

 of diatoms springs up whenever and wherever still water 

 conditions prevail ; the optimum of such conditions appears to 

 be reached in normal seasons between the end of September 

 and the beginning of February in the warm shallows under the 

 lee of coast, the period in which the skies on the West Coast are 



