NO. 3 ( 1920) INSHORE FISHING EXPERIMENTS 121 



\c) Big pomfret, medium seer, cat-fish and sharks. 



(</) Big seer, palameen, big cat-fish, kora, rays, and big 



sharks. 

 {e) Special for narimln (Lates calcarifer) and bigger 



sharks. 

 (/) Special for large sharks. 

 All the above-named drift and gill nets except Ayla Chala 

 Vala are shot only in fleets of 10 to 15 pieces each varying in 

 dimensions as given below: — 



Number 

 Width of I piece Length of pieces. 



1. Ayala Chala Vala, 5 fathoms 12 to 16 fathoms 1 



2. Mathi „ „ 2 l / 2 „ 5 to 6 „ 10 to 12 



3. Kandadi and Odu Vala, 2— 2 l / 2 „ 10 to 12 ,, 10 to 15 



4. Shark net 2 8 10 to 12 

 All these except the last which requires a big canoe with five 



to six men, are operated from one small canoe manned by two to 

 four men. Generally a group of canoes operate together. 



(7) Cheria Veppu. — This is a long line with the line of even 

 1,000 fathoms long and with 1,000 hooks (l ! 4 inch long) each of 

 which is suspended at every fathom by a string of about lY 2 feet in 

 length. 



There are two big floats, one at each extremity, with a number 

 of small ones between. Small pieces of fish, prawns, and cuttle 

 fish are used as bait. 



The cost of one long-line 1,000 fathoms long with hooks is 

 Rs. 35 to Rs. 40 (present). 



(8) Sravu Veppu. — This is also a long-line 100 to 200 fathoms 

 long with 20 big hooks 5 to 6 inches long, but here the hooks are 

 suspended not by a string but by a chain and the floats are much 

 bigger; generally two tarred kerosene oil tins serve as floats, one 

 at each extremity. Big pieces of beef are used as bait. 



Sharks of big size are hooked in this. The cost of one Shark 

 long-line is Rs. 25 to Rs. 50 (present). 



The catches from our experiment may be taken as being- 

 more or less typical of the Madras Coast. The bigger fishes were 

 individually weighed, while the smaller ones were measured by 

 standard baskets the actual weight of which had been previously 

 ascertained; so that the weight of the latter is fairly accurate. 

 As the daily catches were auctioned wholesale by baskets in the 

 case of small fishes and individually or by lots in the case of 



