80 



Indian coast, I believe that with a large trawl towed at a 

 sufficiently high speed, large numbers of the so-called Indian cod 

 (Serranus spp.), of rock-fishes (Lethrinus spp.), and of sharks 

 and rays would reward the enterprise. But even if a sufficiency 

 of fish be obtainable, the difficulties which surround the 

 question of the profitable disposal of the catches will remain 

 for solution, and in my opinion it is more easy to trawl fish 

 than to organize the distribution and sale section of the 

 enterprise. Trawl fish to pay should be sold fresh ; if curing 

 be necessary then expenses may be so heavy as to render the 

 enterprise profitless. 



B. — The development and extension of drift netting 



and long-lining. 



34. Drift nets. — Drift netting has long been practised on 

 the West Coast both in Malabar and South Canara where it 

 provides employment for a large number of men. Development 

 has, however, been markedly unequal in the two districts, for 

 whereas in South Canara, thanks to the energy and enterprise 

 of Ratnagiri fishermen, progress lias beeu steady and satisfac- 

 tory on lines surprisingly akin to those followed in the North 

 Sea by our own herring drifters, on the Malabar coast, on the 

 contrary, the industry has suffered arrestment at a very early 

 and imperfect phase and may be characterized as in an arrested 

 embryonic condition, capable of no improvement without a 

 complete revolution in the design of the boats employed in this 

 fishery. In the case of the Ratnagiri men the dug-out canoe 

 has been definitely abandoned as wholly unsuitable, its place 

 taken by true boats, large, well designed and well built, able 

 to go far to sea and to accommodate that great length of nets 

 which is necessary in order to ensure catches sufficiently large 

 to prove really remunerative. In striking contrast to this 

 enlightened policy is opposed the touching fidelity of Malabar 

 to its dug-out canoe, a type of fishing craft the worst possible 

 for the prosecution of drift netting on any but the most paltry 

 scale. It is not as if the value of drift netting as one of the 

 principal methods of sea fishing were little known or appreciated 

 in Malabar ; on the contrary in a primitive way it is practised 

 by the men of every fishing village on the coast, and its import- 

 ance in their eyes is demonstrated by the fact that there are 

 more varieties of gilling nets in use in this district than of any 

 other net type. The difficulty or rather the impossibility of 

 further development is due solely to the fact that the smallness 

 and unseaworthiness of the fishing canoes in use set inexorable 

 limit to the size of the nets employed and the distance from 



