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Fish Industry. 



By J. Douglas Ogilpa'. 



Owing to tlie numerous bays and estuaries wliicli cvcrywlicro indent 

 its sliores, tlie Colony of New Soutli Wales is peculiarly adapted to the 

 successful prosecution of various fishing- industries^ which sliould greatly 

 increase the wealth of the community at large. 



In the space to which I am limited it will be impossiljle to do more 

 than enumerate the fishes which are likely to prove valuable to us, 

 those families being specially selected which, from their numbers and 

 quality, may in the future become available for export. 



Apodes. — Several species of Eels are brought to our markets, but 

 only one, the Long-finned Eel, Anguilla reinharclti, is obtained in suf- 

 ficient quantities to entitle it to a jolace among our food fishes. Like 

 all its congeners it is an excellent table fish, and as it is abundant in 

 all the rivers and estuaries of our eastern watershed, and from its great 

 tenacity of life may be depended on to remain fresh through weather 

 which would quickly taint other fishes, it is always sure to connnand 

 a high price. 



Malacopterygii. — Among the Malacopterygians proper only one 

 group which can in anywise lay claim to economic value occurs ; this is 

 the great congeries of families of which the Herring and the Anchovy 

 may be taken as representatives. 



It has long been known that at certain seasons our seas teem with 

 Herrings {Clujieidfe) of various species, three, perhaps four, of which 

 pass northwards along our coast in almost incredible numbers yearly, 

 the season of migration being, roughly speaking, the last six nionths 

 of the year. 



Only two of these are, however, likely to become of commcreial 

 importance, though a more accurate knowledge of the composition of 

 the mighty shoals which visit our shores may reveal the presence of at 

 least two other species in remunerative quantities. 



Of these four the Pilchard, Cliipea sagax, is the most valuable, and 

 is no doubt destined to become at some future period a source of 

 considerable wealth to the Colony, perhaps even, when a regular fishery 

 has been inaugurated and the necessary factories erected and worked 

 under expert management, to enter into no mean rivalry with its 

 more famous northern relative. In a fresh state its flesh is of equal 

 excellence with that of the Atlantic Pilchard, and, given its capture 

 in sufficient numbers, there is no reason why it should not compete 

 successfully with the bloater and the sardine of foreign production ; 

 at the least we ought to be able to produce sufficient for homo 



