THE OFFING FISHERIES. 9 



has not been repeated. Then there is a bank about three 

 miles east by north from Bowen Island, off the mouth of 

 Jervis Bay, carrying 30 to 35 fathoms of water. Another 

 bank exists ten miles east by north from "Wollongong carrying 

 30 fathoms, and one five miles east from Kiama carrying 40 

 fathoms. Besides, there are the Sir John Young's banks, 

 about three to four miles oft* the south headland of the Shoal- 

 haven Bight — these consist of an inner and an outer bank of 

 rock formation, they carry a depth of 7 to 12 fathoms of water; 

 tile water around the banks dips to 20 and 40 fathoms. The 

 banks are not much used by fishermen. In calm weather they 

 are easily recognisable by the rip of the current. The accidental 

 discovery of these banks suggests that in the conformation of 

 the ocean bottom they may be found to occur in numbers, 

 and be fish-bearing to such a degree as to give quite distinc- 

 tive features to the fisheries of the future. 



Between Coogee and Cape Banks, the northern headland 

 of Botany Bay, the fishing grounds are wholly confined to 

 those in the ofiing ; there are about a dozen schnapper 

 grounds within these limits, but none of them of much 

 importance. Excepting the long line of rocky ground which 

 forms the submarine extension of Cape Banks, none here- 

 about possess the necessary conditions for school fish ; as is 

 the case on all foul grounds fish roam about from patch to 

 patch in small schools. The entrance to Botany Bay is foul 

 as a rule, and although wide of Cape Banks there are some 

 very fair school-fish grounds, yet they have never been 

 appreciated by fishermen, who prefer the Bumboras and 

 off-shore grounds to the southward of Cape Solander, Long- 

 nose, and Curranulla Head, notwithstanding the strength 

 of the southerly current which, off some of these headlands, 

 runs in the summer months like a sluice. 



Mr. Alexander Oliver, M.A., now the President of the 

 Land Appeal Court, at one time a Commissioner of Fisheries 

 for this Colony, and who as a recognised authority has given 

 very frequent and valuable contributions to our fisheries 

 literature, thus describes in an interesting paper on the 

 fisheries, the grounds from Botany to Wattamolle : — 



" At and off the entrance of Eotany and Curranulla Head there are 

 several well known schnapper grounds, about 2 miles within Curranulla Bight 

 (the "Bate Bay" o£ our charts) is a famous ground known to fishermen as the 

 Mary, Merry, or Shamrock Eock, for it goes under all these names. It is a 

 sunken flat rock, or series of rocks, with about 8 to 11 fathoms of water, situated 

 at the point of a reef which runs from a little boat-harbour called 'Doughboy,' 



