12 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY REPORT 



the flat littoral of Adatra is very rich in organisms that love the rush and swirl 

 of tides and highly oxygenated water. Massive corals (Porites, Turbinaria, and 

 astrseids) and great fleshy alcyonarians (Sarcophyton) flourish in great luxuriance 

 and, strange to say, bear occasional exposure to the air without ill consequences 

 at the times of great spring tides. Madrepores (branched corals) were conspicuous 

 by their absence. Little weed grew here except near low-tide level, and several 

 dead shells of fully grown pearl oysters (M. vulgaris) were found. The Vahivatdar 

 was also able to assure me that live oysters have been found here to his knowledge. 

 Certainly the place is quite suited to give them foothold, but as the reef slopes 

 off rapidly from low-water level into the deep, gravelly channel of the harbour, 

 and as the range of pearl oysters does not extend far above low tide, the reef at 

 best can support them only in extremely limited number. 



(b) North and south of the town of Beyt and also along the south coast 

 of the island, the land rises abruptly from the sea into cliffs of fifty to sixty feet 

 in height. The sea bottom along these cliffs is very uneven and is not suitable 

 for the growth of oysters. In many places there is a great tangle of sea-fans 

 and sea- whips (Gorgonids), while the current on the bottom is usually very strong. 

 Every time we used the dredge we had trouble ; it was continually fouling some 

 obstruction so that c-ven if there are pearl oysters here (we saw not a trace 

 of any) they could not be fished save by pump divers, at a cost which would 

 be prohibitive. 



(c) The rocky islets and small reefs in Beyt Harbour. On some of these, 

 as for example the Dhcd Mora, occasional pearl-oyster spat may settle in the zone 

 near low water. At the season when I was there, seaweed growth was so rank 

 at this and the next lower horizons that it was impossible to search effectively 

 for stray individuals. Had oysters been present in any fishable quantity in any 

 number adequate to make fishing remunerative the search was sufficiently effective 

 to have revealed some. The nature of the ground, boulders of all sizes piled up 

 round the bases of these rocky islets, is quite against the presence of any fair quantity 

 under the best conditions of spat-fall and immunity from enemies. 



(d) Aramra and Kiu. As mentioned incidentally once before, these localities 

 are covered in the main with a varying thickness of soft mud. Pearl oysters cannot 

 possibly exist there, though in the higher portions of Aramra Creek there is a 

 " hard " which is well suited to the cultivation of the edible oyster. Of this more 

 will be said on another page. 



(e) Balapur and Rann Bays. The bottom in these bays is a uniform 

 expanse of flat mud tenanted by beds of window-pane oysters, by languid, a 

 subcritid sponge and other lovers of the mud. These localities share the disabilities 

 of Aramra and Kiu. 



