149 



seas, and valuable facts are beginning to emerge from the data already 

 collected. 



19. Fishery Legislation. — With the intimate acquaintance now- 

 being acquired with the conditions under which sea-fishing is carried 

 on upon our coasts, it becomes possible to single out here and there 

 those methods which are pre-eminently destructive or otherwise 

 objectionable ; it is however impossible as yet to frame any general 

 fishery regulations governing in detail the sizes and forms of fishery 

 apparatus throughout the Presidency ; as Government wisely desire 

 to do nothing to limit or restrict sea-fishing except upon evidence the 

 most direct and irrefutable, the procedure thus necessitated is to intro- 

 duce from time to time regulations touching particular methods or 

 practices. The first of these to be framed is one published under the 

 Indian Fisheries Act, 1897, in the Fort St. George Gazette of 31st 

 March, 191 6, whereby the practice of placing trees and bushes in the 

 sea for the purpose of attracting fishes is placed under the supervision 

 and control of the Superintendent of Pearl and Chank Fisheries ; this 

 fishing device is prevalent throughout the Indian waters of Palk Bay 

 and is objectionable in several ways — as an infringement of the 

 general fishery freedom of the sea, as dangerous to navigation, and as 

 interfering in certain places with the proper prosecution of the chank 

 fishery. In future, licenses for the placing of these fixed engines must 

 be obtained and by this means this method will be regulated and 

 limited to those places where its employment is not objectionable. 

 Other regulations are under consideration, but in a country so conser- 

 vative as India progress in regulative legislation is particularly slow 

 and difficult. 



20. Steam traivling. — Evidence based upon experiments instituted 

 by the writer some years ago was published during the year, showing the 

 great potentialities possessed by the vast area within the loo-fathom 

 line (approximately 4,000 square miles) lying oft" Cape Comorin, for 

 profitable steam trawling when once certain difficulties connected with 

 transport to inland markets can be overcome. Practical progress is 

 however held up at present owing to the financial stringency entailed 

 by the war ; meanwhile plans are being elaborated while designs and 

 specifications have been obtained from home for a vessel constructed 

 with a view to subserve extensive and prolonged experiments upon a 

 commercial scale as well as to serve other urgent fishery requirements. 

 We shall thus be in a position to proceed with this investigation, 

 which is, I believe, the most urgent and by far the most important of 

 all present fishery problems, as soon as circumstances again become 

 normal. India is crying aloud for the inception of new industries and 

 here is one which if successful — and the omens are all favourable — • 

 should open up a new and almost inexhaustible source of food supply. 



21. The deep-sea fisheries off Negapatam and the migrations of the 

 Sardine, together with the causes of the deplorable failure of this 

 fishery on the Malabar coast in 1915-16, still remain uninvestigated, 

 owing to the inadequacy of the marine biological staff" to find 

 time for these investigations. The enquiry into the causes of wide- 

 spread local mortality of fishes has been however advanced to some 

 extent, and its cause found to be, in the instances investigated, che 



