123 



The above and other matters are dealt with seriatim 

 and in detail below, the reports of the Piscicultural 

 Expert and the Marine Biologist being printed almost 

 in full, and an abstract given of pearl and chank fisheries 

 operations which are separately reported on. 



5. Dwectoi's branch. — This was run directly by the 

 Honorary Director with the co-operation of the Assist- 

 ant Director Mr. V. Govindan, b.a., and the Oil Chemist 

 Mr. A. K. Menon, b.a. It includes the mass of work 

 connoted by the expression "general supervision and 

 control of the F'isheries Department " whether adminis- 

 trative, technical, or financial, and needs no special 

 mention except that each year necessarily and rightly 

 increases the volume, diversity, and complexity of the 

 work. The negotiations for a new expert Director did 

 not materialize and the present officer has had to carry 

 on. It also includes the industrial sections worked at 

 the Tanur fish-curing and oil and guano yard, tlie 

 Beypore cannery, and the soapery. 



6. Tanilr experimental station. — The year was abso- 

 lutely disastrous ; a year of fish-famine, not merely at 

 Tanur but along the whole coast. The measure of this 

 scarcity may be gauged by the fact that only twice, and 

 in November only, were sardines procurable for oil 

 and guano at Tanur, while at the cannery sardines for 

 canning were only obtained on five occasions from ist 

 November to the end of February while they should 

 have been obtained ten or twenty times as often ; conse- 

 quently there was hardly any oil and guano or fish manure 

 on the coast, and prices for the minute quantity obtain- 

 able were out of all proportion. Mackerel were almost 

 equally scarce, and the .early cat-fish shoals for which 

 large profits are obtained, were very scanty. A further 

 result was the comparative absence of the larger fish 

 which feed on the smaller. Hence ordinary operations 

 were scanty, and only prawns gave fair results. There 

 is little to record because little could be done. 



7. Pickled mackerel. — A new^ departure was made in 

 picking mackerel, but these were too scarce for serious 

 treatment. Those pickled with salt, like Scotch and 

 English pickled herring, and sold moist, were favour- 

 ably received, but the cost of mackerel this year, the 

 expense of containers, the difficulty of getting water-tight 



