77 



numerous ; water discoloured. Duration of haul one hour 20 

 minutes. The catch amounted to a total weight of 55 lbs. made 

 up as follows : — 



LBS. 



Cuttlefish ( Septa) ... ... ... .,. 14 



First-class fish (chiefly flat-fish and pomfret) ... 16 



Second-class fish ... ... ... ... ... 25 



55 



27. Haul 30, 17th November. 5^ to 5J fathoms, begin- 

 ning from two miles south-west of Maugalore river, thence 

 going southwards. Plankton abundant. Enormous shoals of 

 sardines present. Bottom, sandy mud ; water discoloured with 

 sediment ; strong ebb tide from river mouth. Duration of haul 

 three-fourth hour. The catch amounted to 68 lbs. ; weight 

 made up of flat-fish (Psettodes) 4^ lbs. ; small round fish 12 lbs.; 

 three rays and two dogfish 51^ lbs. ; total 68 lbs. The rays 

 were P. ?nicrura, while the dogfish were the highly esteemed 

 Chiloscyllium indicum. 



28. All these hauls gave an encouraging show of fish 

 especially when we bear in mind that the size of the trawl was 

 extremely small and that a trawling smack, to say nothing of a 

 steam trawler, would use a beam at least twice as long, thereby 

 more than doubling the potential catching power, because 

 when using a small trawl such as ours, the chances of a fish 

 escaping when disturbed by the ground rope are greater than 

 with a wider mouthed net ; in the one case if a fish dart 

 sideways, say S feet, it may pass clear of the net, whereas in 

 the case of a larger net, the same startled flurry would not 

 take it clear of the side of the trawl mouth and it would be 

 passed down into the cod end. Again, crews of trawling 

 smacks after working one locality for some clays would discover 

 the places where fish congregate most numerously and by work- 

 ing on selected fishing grounds would obtain further improved 

 returns. Another point in favour of better catches by smacks 

 than our returns indicate, is that whereas all our inshore trial 

 hauls were daylight ones, smacksmen would be prepared to 

 work at night and as we know from European experience 

 night trawling generally gives better results than by daylight. 

 Everything is in favour of a great increase iu the bulk of the 

 catches if a larger trawl be worked from smacks and when we 

 consider that several of our hauls gave satisfactory catches even 

 under the unfavourable conditions under which we laboured the 

 prospect of developiug a profitable inshore trawling industry on 

 the Malabar and Canarese coasts is sufficiently promising to justify 

 effort and capital being put into a working trial of the business 



