Pigure 2. Diving "boat working in waters aroiand. Margarita 



Island. Notice life line tender standing on 

 stern and holding air hose in the right har\e^ 

 and signal line in the left one. 



U. Shucking of oysters 



All oysters gathered hy divers, or taken hy dredgers, axe hrotight ashore and 

 o-oened on land (Article 10, par. 1, Ley de Pesca, 19^). Several well-sheltered places are 

 used for opening the oysters. The largest is found on Isla Caxihe, en tminhahited, rocky 

 island southeast of Isla Cochl« The place I visited was a well-protected cove. There were 

 18 primitive huts, used as temporary dwellings hy the fishermen (rancheros), .and one concrete 

 platform for salting and drying the fish. Large shell heaps, some of them nearly 20 feet 

 high, represented the results of many years of pearling (fig. 3)» Iii places, there were 

 deep holes or trenches in the accumulated shell material. Those v;ere made hy women and chil- 

 dren v;ho come after the men have finished opening the oysters and search through the discarded 

 material. It is said that in this \:ay a sulDstantial munTDer of pearls are heing recovered. 

 The shell heaps and grovinds of the cove v/ere greatly infested v;ith 'blejdk flies, and at the 

 time of my visit the stench of decomposing oyster meat v/as very strong in spite of a fresh 

 "breeze of atout 25 or 30 miles per hour. It was diffictilt to imagine a more desolate spot 

 than the shores of this cove, where the many generations of fishermen opened their catch in, 

 search of -oearls which later on served for no other purpose but the edornment of human beings. 

 The contrast betv/een the beauty of the product of the fishery and the conditions imder which 

 the flahapmen work is striking. 



Some of the pearl oysters are opened at San Pedro de Coch^. The Island is 

 entirely devoid of v/ater. The annual precipitation is almost zero, and local supply of 

 v/ater is vranting. The soil is dry, with a spaxee growth of cactus. Due to excessive wind 

 erosion, the red rocks of the island ha.ve aco^uired fantastic, odd. shapes, creating an 

 illusion of castles fend tov.-ers. In spite of acute dryness, the town of San Pedro, with a 

 population of several thousand, is an important fishing center. All the v/ater for human 



11 



