89 



Government shall begin work by establishing as soon as circumstances 

 permit, a first station on the West Coasfc, probably at Tellicherrj, 

 with the following initial objects. 



188. First, it will be the earliest business of the station to build 

 or cause to be built on its designs small (5 to 10 ton) sea-going 

 fishing boats (sailers) suitable to local requirements within the means 

 of many local fishermen, safe, roomy and comfortable enough to 

 shelter a crew for a week or more, and to house their catches in salt 

 holds or in wells or live chests. For, the future of the trade is with 

 the catching; and while it is true that, in the absence of an organized 

 fresh fish trade, larger catches will have to be marketed as cured fish, 

 yet the development of the whole industry, and with it, the food and 

 manure supply of the country, rests with the improvement in the 

 catching and storing power of the boats, in their ability to stay out at 

 sea, to seek out and follow up the shoals,* to exploit the deeper waters 

 and to trawl over the shallower ones, to operate fleets of drift nets 

 and miles of long line, and to keep their catches in snch condition, 

 whether in wells or salt, as shall make them marl^etable goods even 

 weeks after capture; last July in Gloucester (Mass. U.S.A.), I saw 

 absolutely sound, wholesome fish turned out of the hold of a smack 

 which had caught them on the distant cod banks and kept thein in her 

 salt-hold from April onwards. In Japan the improvement of boats 

 for deep sea and distant fishing is a constant anxiety and subject 

 of experiment, and our experimental station should take the lead in 

 demonstrating the best build and rig, and the cost ; measures for 

 assisting fishermen — if necessary — to build such boats can follow on 

 the demonstration. 



189. The second object of the station will be the introduction and 

 use, especially with the new boats, of new and better nets, especially 

 the purse seine for deep sea use on the shoals of sardine and mackerel. 

 The sea bottom along our coasts is so generally of a muddy or sandy 

 nature, is so free from rocks, and shelves so gradually, that the use of 

 the trawl is obviously indicated, and this net will also be tried. The 

 long line, i.e., the horizontal line of a mile or more in length, armed 

 with hooks on short vertical lines (snoods) at frequent intervals, will 

 also be adopted ; in a small size it is in occasional use on parts of the 

 West Coast, but is not general even there, and on the East Coast is 

 practically unknown. 



190. The third object of the station will be to experiment in 

 bringing fish to shore or into the curing yard in better condition than 

 at present, even when salt is not used on board ; to learn and to teach 

 the better treatment of the fish, alive or dead, so as to minimize the 



* As I write this I note from the ordinary reports of the fish-ouring yards remarks 

 such as " the sardine shoals are moving awaj- from the shore " or " the shoals have gone 

 out to sea," etc., remarks which mtan, as the figures in the repoits show, a cessation of 

 catches till shoals return to shore. 



