i8 



engaged In curing it is not possible to put down more 

 than 20,000 persons (men and boys) as engaged in the 

 actual catching of fish (the actual fishermen are seldom 

 curers), and as the average crew of a canoe is perhaps 

 4 (2 for small and 6 to 8 for large ones), there cannot iDe 

 more and there are probably less than 5,000 canoes on 

 these coasts, to which must be added one or two hundred 

 Bombay boats for about three months in the year. 

 Hence, in round figures, there is only about one boat 

 (canoe) per square sea-mile within the 30-fathom limit 

 and only one per 3 square miles within the loo-fathom 

 limit. 



17. Again, while the number of boats and men 



engaged in fishing is comparatively 



Weak efficiency of gj^-^^jj ^^^| ^y^Q " boatS Weak, the 

 boats and crews. rr • i • i i 



erhciency, compared with the apparent 

 abundance of fish, is also small since everything is done 

 by manual labour with small nets easily avoided by fish, 

 and since much of the labour is fruitlessly expended in 

 rowino- to and from the fishing grounds. A pair of 

 boats with total crews of 14 men. is required to work a 

 very moderate sized dip-net (odam) which averages 

 very moderate takes. Now the crew of a modern 

 British steam trawler with its gigantic net sweeping the 

 sea, or a steam drifter with a fieet of nets miles in 

 length, has but 11 or 12 men including the engine room 

 hands, and there can be no comparison in the respective 

 catchino- power of these boats. Hence the number of 

 boats and men is no gauge of efficiency in catching 

 when compared with other countries. 



18. It will be objected that the use of large deep-sea 



boats and the expenditure of capital 

 Probably abundance ^^^^ enterprise thercon presupposes 



or otherwise of hsh m , ^ } ' . . 



West Coast waters. that the sea contams nsh m quantities 



which would be remunerative to such 

 enterprise, and that as yet little is known as to the 

 abundance or otherwise of fish life in the deeper waters 

 between, say, 10 and 100 fathoms. The objection is 

 reasonable, but though proof is slight probabilities are 

 strono- ; the fishermen express no doubt on the matter ; 

 the boats which go a few miles out, e.g., the Ratnagirl 

 boats, get large catches of good fish ; the inshore catches 

 of deep-sea fish are considerable which presupposes 

 abundance of such fish in the deeper waters, available to 



