16 OKHAMANDAL marine zoology report 



(e) Before that date a day for the issue of licences is appointed, those men who 

 are registered as pearl fishers in ten shore villages being alone notified. 



(/) The licensees then form themselves into fishing groups or parties, and are 

 allotted one or more supervising ofiicers of the State, according to the number forming 

 the party. A Wagher patel has also to accompany each party. 



(g) Pearl fisher parties may fish anywhere they choose, but the members of each 

 party must keep together that supervision may be efiicient. 



(h) On the days selected for pearl-fishing the fishers assemble at the house of 

 their supervising officer, who then accompanies them. They pursue the fishing by 

 wading. When necessary to use boats to reach the fishing grounds these are provided 

 free by the chief customs officer. 



(i) At the end of each day's work all oysters collected have to be opened in the 

 presence of an official, who notes the number of pearls obtained by each fisherman, 

 and provides him with a numbered cloth in which to wrap them. These little bags 

 are then dropped into a sealed box, where they accumulate till the end of the fishery. 



(j) With the close of the season all boxes are conveyed to the Jamnagar Treasury 

 where they are opened and the bags belonging to each fisher sorted out from the 

 others and their contents valued by experts. 



(k) Finally each man receives ■§■ the value of his catch in cash, -^ in cloth, 

 and -^jj (already received) in food, while two prizes are given to the two villages pro- 

 ducing the most valuable collections of pearls. 



From the foregoing and from the knowledge acquired during the examination 

 of the Beyt and Poshetra reefs, we see that at its best, along the lengthy sea frontage 

 of Jamnagar, off which lie numbers of productive reefs of much greater circuit than 

 any within the limits of Okhamandal, the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Kutch is' what 

 may be termed a village industry. No beds of oysters occur anywhere within 

 the district. The oysters occur sparsely, scattered singly along a narrow fringe 

 bordering the reefs and accessible only on the dates of great spring tides during the 

 warm period from June to September — a very limited fishing season. 



In view of these difficult conditions, I do not think the method of actual fishing 

 pursued can be improved greatly, as several practical obstacles preclude the employ- 

 ment of naked divers — chiefly the difficulty and excessive labour that are involved 

 in making a search under water for oysters so sparsely scattered as they are here ; 

 the great force of the currents along the margins of the reefs also stands in the way 

 of successful diving (my divers complained greatly of this and often said they 

 could not keep their feet on the bottom). The employment of pump divers is even 

 less feasible ; the cost would be quite disproportionate to the returns, more especially 

 as the mother-of-pearl of the shells is of very low value. 



