38 



(6) THE CEYLON FISHERY. 



To omit any account of the Ceylon chank fishery 

 would be to leave the part of the Prince of Denmark out 

 of Hamlet. It has the largest production at the present 

 day and in former days was the object of much solicitude 

 on the part of the Dutch and British rulers of Ceylon. 

 To-day it still remains a source of revenue, but its 

 value to Government has dwindled to small proportions 

 and is represented by the produce of an export tax, 

 bringing in some Rs. 5,000 to 6,000 per annum. 



Up to 1890, the Ordinances Nos. 4 and 5 of 1842* 

 regulated both the fishery for live chanks and the 

 digging of dead (sub-fossil) chanks. Under these laws 

 the divers were under obligation to take out licences for 

 themselves and their boats, paying specified fees, while 

 permits had to be obtained for the erection of stores for 

 " dead " shells. In consequence of the various abuses 

 which crept in, it was deemed advisable to repeal these 

 regulations and a new Ordinance, No. 18 of 1890, was 

 issued. Under this, all restrictions alike on diving and 

 digging were removed and in lieu of the fees relinquished 

 an export duty not to exceed one cent (2 pies) per shell 

 was substituted. Export of chanks except through 

 specified ports was prohibited. The use of dredges or 

 related apparatus in the fishery was forbidden under 

 pain of imprisonment or of fine while it was declared 

 unlawful and punishable by six months' imprisonment for 

 any person to fish for or collect chanks, beche-de-mer, 

 coral or shells anywhere "eastward of a straight line 

 drawn from a point six miles westward of Talaimannar 

 to a point six miles westward from the shore two miles 

 south of Talaivilla." The limits specified are so chosen 

 as to include the whole of the long shallow bay wherein 

 all the important pearl banks are situated. Thus the 

 territorial waters of this part of the coast of Ceylon were 

 constituted for the special object in view, as a strip six 

 miles in m idth outside of a line connecting the two horns 

 of the Pearl Fishery Bay. Owing to the curvature of the 

 shore the seaward limit in certain places is twenty miles 

 from nearest land. This safeguard against interference 



* It is interesting to note that the former was entitled " An Ordinance for the 

 protection of Her Majesty's rights in the digging for dead chanks," and the 

 latter " An Ordinance for the protection of Her Majesty's chank fishery." 



