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(g) The present condition of fishing industries in the 

 Laceadive Islands and the potentialities which exist for the 

 development of the marine resources of these islands. 



Besides these primary lines of enquiry whatever opportunities 

 offered for investigation of the food and parasites of fishes, and 

 of the general marine fauna of the districts visited, were to be 

 availed of so far as time would permit. 



2. The working period of the cruise extended from 24th 

 October to 10th December 1908, a period of seven weeks. 

 Daring this time the coast from Pound ni in the south to Malpe 

 in the north was fully examined, the neighbourhood of Cochin 

 was also tested by the trawl, and eight days were devoted to a 

 visit to four islands in the Laceadive Archipelago. 



A summary of the principal observations made, with such 

 practical deductions as appear pertinent to the improvement 

 and development of fishing industries, will now be given under 

 separate headings. 



A. — The suitability or othenvise of West Coast fishing 

 ground* for s team - trawling. 



3. I had purposed to give a detailed account and analysis 

 of every trawl-haul made, but on going over the great mass of 

 detail in my note-books it seems preferable to confine attention 

 to the facts of main fishery importance and to hold over records 

 of rare fishes and the like to the more appropriate occasion of 

 a purely faunistic report. 



In all, fifty-two hauls were made varying from half an hour 

 to three hours in duration ; the majority were daylight hauls, 

 but a number were made at night ; the latter gave no better 

 results than the former. 



4. A small 1 5-foot beam -trawl was employed principally ; 

 during the last fortnight of work a yacht's 42-foot otter-trawl 

 was also used. It would have been preferable to have had 

 larger gear iu the case of the beam-trawl or heavier in the 

 case of the otter ; unfortunately the steamer at our disposal is 

 iil-adapted to this form of fishing and without a costly refit, it 

 was impossible to employ apparatus of greater power. 



5. The evidence furnished by the investigation as a whole 

 is most distinctly adverse to any prospect of the develop- 

 ment of West Coast fisheries by means of steam -trawling within 

 the 30-fathom line, a conclusion I was prepared for from a 

 careful studv of the charts of the area to be examined. With 

 a few unimportant exceptions the bottom from about a mile 

 from shore out to 30 fathoms, from Ponnani northwards to 



