REPORT ON OCEANOGRAPHY 71 



pect different species of fish. Very often, however, much time is wasted 

 in searching for the fish and from time to time there have been reports 

 from various parts of the world of unusually small catches or even of 

 complete failure of certain fisheries. On the other hand there are oc- 

 casions when catches are normally poor. The fishermen are unable to 

 explain these phenomena so that, from the point of view of financiers, 

 the fishing industry is generally considered to be inherently hazardous 

 and does not attract finance so readily as other enterprises. There are, 

 of course, other factors but this element of uncertainty in fish produc- 

 tion is the largest factor which retards the expansion of the fishing in- 

 dustry on sound economic lines. It is clear, therefore, that for the fish- 

 ing industry to operate on an economic basis the fishermen must be 

 supplied with, inter alia, information as to where and when each spe- 

 cies or group of species of fish is available for fishing operations. This 

 is a task which should be given the highest priority in fishery investi- 

 gations as until it is known where, when and at what depth each spe- 

 cies of fish is available it is not possible to decide where to study the 

 nature of the bottom, the sea currents and the meteorological condi- 

 tions in which the fishing operations have to be carried out effectively 

 without a knowledge of all these factors. The need for reliable predic- 

 tion systems have been felt in different parts of the world and many 

 have been elaborated. The use of indicator organisms for the Herring 

 fishery in the North Sea is an example. It is of special importance in 

 the underdeveloped areas to know when and where to go, so that the 

 production of food for the world's growing population may be in- 

 creased with a minimal waste of effort. 



In Malaya, however, the catches of many of the tears in use at the 

 present moment consist of mixed fish and it has been found that while 

 these fish show a certain amount of food preference, they are mostly 

 plankton feeders and readily feed on other organisms if the food pre- 

 ferred are not available. Details of the results of the investigations on 

 the food and feeding habits of the fishes in Singapore Straits are given 

 in a paper by Tham Ah Kow (1950). There is evidence also that there 

 is a close correlation between wind and catches of certain species of 

 fish such as Stolephorus spp. This is not surprising in view of the fact 

 that the currents in Malayan seas are largely monsoon currents. From 

 the experience gained in the study of the fisheries of Malaya over the 

 years, it would appear also that rainfall and salinity variations as well 

 as variations in plankton play some part in the variation in availability 

 of fish. 



In view of these considerations, it was decided that a concurrent 

 study of the physical, chemical and biological factors as related to the 



