NO. 3 (1920) INSHORE FISHING EXPERIMENTS 125 



LB. RS. A. P. 



June — cotiL 



4. Netheli 



5. Mullets 

 October — 



1. C. melanura 



2. Mackerel ... 



3. Mullets 



4. Vala 



5. C. kanagurta 

 An examination of the above shows that mackerel, clupeids, 



prawns, karapodi and netheli account for such a marked increase 

 in the quantity of the catch during these five months. 



I was informed by the local fisher-folk and others in a position 

 to know that the presence of such large shoals of mackerel as was 

 witnessed during 1919 was unusual. It was considered by many as 

 a godsend to save the poor fisher-folk and others from starvation 

 due to famine conditions resulting from the late world war. This 

 view of the abnormal nature of the shoals in 1919 receives confirm- 

 ation from the data for the 1917-18 Inshore Fishing Experiments, 

 when clupeids (C. melanura mostly and C. kanagurta) and prawns 

 form the most important kinds of that year's catch ; mackerel were 

 got only in very small quantities ; there has been this yeara percep- 

 tible decrease in the quantity of prawns caught. 



I infer from what the local fisher-folk have told me that 

 mackerel shoals appear annually but last only for a few days and 

 then disappear. I have also heard some say that once in every four 

 or five years there used to be comparatively big hauls of mackerel 

 but anything like their abundance and the longer stay in 1919 was 

 never observed within the last twenty years or so. Whether there is 

 actually any such cyclic appearance of big mackerel shoals in 

 Madras waters as is commonly believed or if the time of their 

 annual migration here is fairly constant can be positively stated 

 only after a statistical study covering a number of years. 



Mackerel Fishery Season, 1919. — With the exception of March, 

 July and August mackerel were caught throughout the year as 

 can be seen from the table below:— 



LB. RS. A. P. 



January ... 8,073 380 9 5 



February ... 19,444 ;oi 3 9 



March ... it* 



* Given as bait to long-line men. 



