THE CABIBBEIN imk 



and quite powerful. They are built with considerable sheer and have a fair amount of keel 

 surface and deadwood aft. The bow is flared and clipper-styled. The stem is square with 

 a small transom and a good deal of overhang, Fre^oard is generally low. "Rxey are complete- 

 ly decked over and there are a number of hatches on deck leading to the live well, storage 

 spaces, and a small cockpit. The rudder is hung outboard. 



Fishing vessels of the Cayman Islands are well-constructed locally and are excellent 

 sea boats. They are usually 50 to 75 feet in length and often equipped with live wells. 

 They are fitted with schooner-type rigging and are capable of making long trips to sea. 



Motor vessels are comparatively little used for fishing in the Caribbean. Most motor- 

 ized boats are conversions from sailing types. This is accoii?)lished throxigh the install- 

 ation of auxiliary motors or outboard motors. Very few have been built especially as motor 

 fishing boats. One or two small motorized craft are found at Trinidad and tiiese are open 

 boats. In Venezuela, a number of craft have been motorized and at least one, a motorized 

 experimental fishing vessel of European type has been constructed. In Cuba, a special 

 type of bait-fishing boat for tuna has been built and is operating successfully. In Puerto 

 Rico, a shrimp trawler-tj'pe boat is being used in exploratory fishing. In general, however, 

 there has been little incentive for adding motors and practically none for designing more 

 modem types of motorized fishing vessels. 



It was found that while good vessels and boats couM be built in the Caribbean area, 

 the success of this was dependent on importations of wood, particularly planking, and 

 fittings, hardware, and sails. With these materials freely available, good boats of any 

 type can be built, for native craftmen are quite skilled in ship carpentry. 



Fishing Gear 



The types of fishing apparatus used in the Caribbean fisheries are strikingly similar 

 throughout the area. While native ingenuity has supplied substitutes for some materials 

 essential to fishing, the entire area is dependent to a large entent on imported materials, 

 Caribbean fishermen usually knit their own nets — usually fran imported twine, they also 

 assemble their own hook and line gear and make their pots by hand. Fishing apparatus in 

 use usually stresses individual effort rather than mass effort, and, for this reason, there 

 are practically no modem, mass-production types of gear used. 



The basic types of apparatus may be listed as follows: 



1. Pots or traps 



2. Weirs 



3. Nets — gillnets, traranel nets, haulseines, dipnets, Italian seines, castnets 



4. Hood and line — troll lines, hand lines, line trawls, "palangres" 



5. Spears, harpoons, bow and arrow, hooks 



6. Illegal forms— dynamite, toxic substances 



Pots and Traps ;— These are generally known as "nasas" in the Spanish-speaking parts of 

 the Caribbean and as fish pots in the Biglish-speaking sections. Pots are used throughout 

 the area and number many tens of thousands. The design, dimensions, and materials used vary 

 with the locality as does the method of fishing. 



One type of pot is built in the shape of a broad arrowhead. The tunnel, or opening into 

 the pot, is located at the center of the base of the arrowhead. It is shapped like an elbow 

 funnel, running first upward toward the top of the pot and then sharply downward toward the 

 floor. The funnel tapers from the outside opening to the inside end. The latter is oval and 

 about 10 inches long and 5 inches wide. Overall, the pots may vary from 3 feet to 12 feet in 



37 



