FISHERIES 237 



in connection with maritime areas, and this is a task requiring 

 expert quaHfications. The preservation or treatment of the catch 

 is the essence of success for a fishery of any size in the tropics, and 

 the development of an industry would necessitate experiment, 

 skilled work, and expensive plants. The chief consumer of African 

 fish, however, at any rate in the tropical regions, is the African 

 native, and he is likely to obtain the best, most continuous, and 

 cheapest supplies by the gradual improvement of the existing 

 indigenous trade, rather than by the introduction of large-scale 

 industries organized on modern lines. 



Recent demonstrations of the value of fish in the dietary of 

 native peoples give an added reason for the development of exist- 

 ing resources. It has lately been shown that the normal diet of 

 most native tribes is deficient in certain constituents, notably pro- 

 tein, calcium, phosphorus and, to a less extent, iodine.^ These 

 are precisely the constituents provided by fish, and there is little 

 doubt that, if the fisheries resources which are known to exist were 

 fully utilized and fish were made available over wide areas, the 

 general health of natives would be markedly improved. At present 

 a considerable trade in fish takes place among most of those tribes 

 which have no actual prejudice against fish-eating; and even those 

 which have, such as the Kikuyu, are beginning to disregard the 

 taboo when supplies are available. 



Fish are generally marketed among natives in a sun-dried or 

 partly smoked condition, forming an article of trade which is un- 

 pleasant to transport, but which goes a long way in flavouring the 

 usual dish of millet or maize meal. Experience in many parts of 

 the world shows that natives do not as a rule like what Europeans 

 consider to be properly cured fish, but even so there is clearly room 

 for improving methods. In large fisheries a form of powdered fish- 

 meal would be the most convenient to market, and its manufacture 

 for native food has been proposed in East and in West Africa. The 

 opinion is usually expressed that it would involve too drastic a 

 change in native food habits to be acceptable, and that the initial 



^ Iodine is certainly supplied to a dietary by sea fish, but not much by freshwater 

 fish. There is reason to suppose that the quantity of iodine in any region is a function 

 of the distance from the sea, and the amount of sea-spray which is mingled with the 

 clouds. Hence the interior of Africa probably contains very little iodine and deficiency 

 may be observable in human beings. 



