PROSPECTS OF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 39' 



where our evidence is already good, the opinions expressed are shared by colleagues who were directly 

 engaged in collection of the data at sea. The more tentative suggestions are my own (T. J. H.). 



The primary object of these investigations was to provide information, upon which the prospects 

 of carrying on any commercial fishery from the Falkland Islands could be assessed. It must be 

 plainly stated that the results are not encouraging; but this is due to economic and geographical 

 factors, rather than to lack of suitable fish. The best trawling grounds are not very near to the Falkland 

 Islands, but it can be shown with reasonable certainty that on the shelf to the northward, roughly 

 equidistant from the Falkland Islands and the lesser Argentine ports, there is a stock of hake just 

 suflScient to enable a modern trawler to pay its way if there were markets equivalent to the British ones 

 within a few hundred miles. 



The population of the Falkland Islands is too small and too scattered (with limited means of com- 

 munication between the settlements) to enable a large trawler to pay its way on local trade alone. If 

 a considerable part of the catch could be sold in, for example, the Argentine at a reasonable price, a 

 trawler working from Port Stanley might be able to keep the latter supplied with the results of, say, 

 one voyage in four. The possibilities of smoking, drying and dehydration would no doubt be taken 

 into consideration, but it seems doubtful whether the fish could be marketed at an economic price 

 in the Argentine. However, I venture to suggest three possibilities, on the strength of the knowledge 

 of the fish-fauna that we have gained. 



I Local inshore seining for 'mullet' (Eleginops), 'smelts' {Austromenidia) and such other species 

 as present themselves. Dr Kemp informed me shortly before his death that our former colleague 

 Dr J. E. Hamilton was even then trying to establish some inshore fishery in the Falklands. Much 

 might be done to place such a scheme on a permanent footing if a small-scale canning plant could be 

 established. This could deal with an occasional glut of 'herring' (Clupea fuegensis) but might aim 

 primarily at developing a small luxury trade in canned Centolla crab {Lithodes), serving to keep a few 

 hands permanently employed. It is not yet known for certain that these crabs would be accessible m 

 sufficient quantity to small coastal craft, but we found encouraging numbers of them in the trawl on 

 the rough ground round the islands, that would not support ordinary inshore trawhng. The main 

 part of this scheme would aim at providing some fresh fish for local consumption (a real need). The 

 canning is a further suggestion to aid in keeping it on a self-supporting basis, which could hardly be 

 hoped for from small-scale seining alone. 



II Exploitation of Clupea fuegensis, possibly by some form of purse-seining, for drift nets or other 

 forms of gill-nets would almost certainly suffer too much from damage by seals and birds to make 

 them workable in the Falkland area. Such a scheme would depend upon canning, production of fish- 

 meal or other means of processing the product. As already explained the trawl could not provide 

 adequate evidence of the quantities of these small semi-pelagic fish available, so that further, possibly 

 costly investigations would be needed, before one could form an adequate opinion as to the feasibility 



of such a scheme. , -r m ■ i 



HI Part-time trawling. If a cold store were available in Port Stanley, and if sufficient employment 

 could" be found for a suitable vessel (possibly on inter-island communications) during more than half 

 her time a modern trawler occasionally working the hake grounds we found to the north could easily 

 keep Port Stanley on a full supply of fish; but it is very doubtful whether she would pay her way 

 at this. 



