Seafood in the nati ve diet .-Fish and shellfish are the most im- 

 portant sources of protein, supplying also minerals and vitamins. 

 Other protein foods, such as chickens, hogs, cocoanut crabs, and 

 fruit bats, are mostly so scarce as to be reserved for feasts and 

 special occasions. Some kind of fish, if it can be obtained, is 

 served with each meal, and estimates made by natives at many dif- 

 ferent places agree on a figure of a pound per person per day. 

 This rate of consumption is not found everywhere. At Rota, Guam, 

 Koror, Truk, and Ponape, supplies are below needs. On Rota, the 

 reef area is relatively small, and no fishing 'is done offshore. 

 On Guam, labor requirements of the armed services doubtless always 

 will provide more work under better conditions, and few persons 

 will choose to be fishermen. At Koror, in the Palaus, the Japanese 

 destroyed all but 80 of the 1500 native canoes, so the shortage of 

 fish is temporary, and should return to normal as boat building is 

 resumed. There is no natural shortage of fish or shellfish. On 

 the main islands of the Truk group, where the Japanese population 

 was located (estimated maximum 4-0,000 military, 2,000 civilians), 

 food shortages were serious because of cut supply lines, so ex- 

 plosives were used on the reefs for quantity production of fish. 

 It will be several years before natural reproduction brings the 

 reef population back to normal. A similar situation exists at 

 Ponape, though destruction of fish was not as great as at Truk. 

 TCith the exceptions noted, fishery resources are ample to meet 

 native needs, assuming that adequate supplies of fishing gear 

 are provided. 



Methods of preparing seafood are varied, but little seasoning 

 is used. Some fish and most bivalves, such as clams, are eaten 

 raw. The Japanese custom of marinating raw fish with lime juice 

 is common, and soy sauce was used to a limited extent. Baking 

 on hot stones, and boiling, are the commonest cooking methods. 

 Frying in cocoanut oil is less common, except in the Llarianas. 

 Turtles are roasted in their own shells. 



NATIVE FISHING METHODS 



As of 1946, home made natural-crook wood shark hooks, and 

 pearl and tortoise shell jigs occupy about the same position in 

 Micronesia as spinning wheels in the United States: a few are still 

 made, but nobody depends on them. Native fishing methods, soundly 

 developed over the years, have been modified only to the extent of 

 using machine made products, ivy own observations lead me to doubt 

 that these mass-produced items catch more fish than native hand- 

 crafted ones. The advantage is in man-hours of labor saved. Two 

 examples will suffice. The white inner stalk of the spider lily, 

 Crinum asiatica , tied around a hook (figure 9) catches barracuda as 

 well as a feather lure, but is good for only one bite. This per- 

 formance is not a matter of opinion but of records made by trolling 

 the two side by side. A sennit (cocoanut fiber) beach seine, hand 

 knotted, from twine laboriously rolled on the thigh, has floats 

 of balsa wood and leads of ockle shells. It takes two months to 

 make, but is durable, and lays out as well as any factory net. 



