74 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



I. Improved System of Inspection. 



(a) The preparation of reliable charts. — The present charts of the Pearl Bank 

 region are extremely unsatisfactory. The positions of none of the many landmarks 

 dotting the whole length of the Tinnevelly and Madura coasts are shown. It is quite 

 impossible to lay off the ship's position with exactitude upon certain of the banks 

 because of this deficiency ; numbers of good marks — chapels, mosques, topes and the 

 like — are in sight, but because their existence has been ignored by the cartographer 

 they are practically useless for the purpose of the inspection of the banks, even 

 actually misleading if we attempt to fix their positions on the coast line and fail, as is 

 probable, in placing them correctly. This lack of beacon indications upon the charts 

 is further adverted to in section d below. 



The scale of the charts in use — one mile to the half inch — is also too small 

 for careful survey and for the insertion of the necessary details in regard to the 

 distribution of oysters, rock, and sand in the areas inspected. 



All the charts used for fishery work should be on the uniform scale of 1 nautical 

 mile to the inch. A 2-inch scale is unnecessarily great and is unwieldy to handle. 

 It is a size especially inconvenient in making comparisons of surveys effected and in 

 furnishing comparative diagrams of oyster distribution to accompany the periodical 

 inspection reports. 



In the past there has been unnecessary sub-division of the potential oyster- 

 bearing area, resulting in the creation of 64 so-called banks. Many of these are 

 extremely small patches of rocky bottom often not more than half a mile long by 

 a quarter in breadth. Many again lie adjacent to one another and hence lend 

 themselves readily to a system of grouping. I propose therefore a grouping of the 

 banks in the manner shown upon charts C and D (annexures III and IV). 



Each group may be denominated by the name of the best known bank included. 

 The grouping suggested is that which has been detailed fully in the section dealing 

 with the topography of the banks (vide ante p. 24) and which need not be here 

 recapitulated. 



Accompanying the revised working chart, which should be put in hand at the 

 earliest opportunity, should be a list of at least three cross bearings taken from the 

 central point in each inspection circle (see infra). 



(b) Adoption of a system of detailed " Circle-inspection?' 1 — To ascertain the 

 presence and distribution of oysters over the whole of the effective Pearl Bank region, 

 an exhaustive examination by what I term " Circle-inspection " is absolutely essential. 



Any bank found bearing oysters should be inspected by this method so long as 

 they remain, and all hitherto unexamined ground should be covered with a net- 

 work of tangent circles to ascertain the distribution of rock and sand and the 

 potentialities of oyster-bearing. 



Picked divers should be employed for the work and the services of the same men 

 secured permanently by giving them either an annual retaining fee or an extra rate 

 of pay. They should be placed under the charge of four inspection coxswains, 

 also on a permanent engagement for the annual inspections in the same way as has 

 been adopted with marked success in the Ceylon service. 



The banks grouped as suggested in the preceding section should next be 

 mapped out into circular inspection areas which may be termed " Inspection- 

 circles ", of 1^ mile in diameter, each denoted by a serial number and, where it can be 

 done with advantage, by a distinctive name. The larger banks, like the Tolayiram 

 and Manapad Pars, will require several circles to cover them, whereas in the ease of 

 the smaller pars several will frequently have to be grouped within one circle. In the 

 latter case, the circle for convenience may take the name of the largest or most 

 important of the included pars ; in the former from its compass bearing. For example 

 the four divisions of the Tolayiram Par may be denominated respectively the north, 

 the central, the south, and the south-west sections, while the circle including the 

 Karai Karuwal and the Yelangu Karuwal Pars may be termed simply the Karuwal 

 section or circle. 



