so 



(c) Cleaning of the Banks. — In this, as in the matter of cultcliing, we may with 

 the greatest advantage profit by the experience of European oyster-oulturists, who 

 liud it absolutely necessary to check the growth upon the banks of all organisms other 

 than oysters. Not only must those that are active enemies of the oyster (starfishes, 

 whelks and the like), be destroyed, but also those animals that curtail the area thai 

 oysters may occupy, and which also consume food that would otherwise fall to the 

 oysters. Sea weeds too are ruthlessly rooted out. As a consequence much of the 

 ovstcrmen's time is taken up iu cleaning the beds by means of the dredge. If the 

 beds are in preparation to receive spat, all harmful matter is taken ashore — starfishes, 

 whelks, mussels, and the thousand and one animals that may be termed the passive 

 enemies of the oysters — where it finds a ready sale as manure. Sea weeds share 

 the 6ame fate, while all solid material that is overgrown with any form of life is 

 regarded as " foul ", and laid out on the beach to be cleansed and bleached by the 

 combined influences of snushine and rain. 



Unfortunately many of the Tuticorin banks, the Tolayiram Pdr 'being a notable 

 exception, are more or less u foul ". Sponges, corals, alcyonarians, echinoderms and 

 ascidians abound on nearly all the inshore pars, as for example, the Uti, Uduruvi, Kilati, 

 and Kudamuttu Pars and such oysters as live there are stunted and poor, suffering 

 by competition with the host of creatures living upon the same diet of microscopical 

 organisms. 



The only means to clean a bed is to dredge it thoroughly, separating and treating 

 the materials brought up in the way above described. 



The Indian banks are too extensive to permit of dredging being undertaken with 

 this sole object in view, but, as this cleansing can and should go on concurrently with 

 the dredging of spat for transplantation or of mature oysters for sale, we have herein 

 one of the chief arguments in favour of taking up dredging on a scale of considerable 

 magnitude. Sight should never be lost of the fact that dredging has four-fold utility, 

 namely, (a) fishing oysters, (b) cleaning ground and removing enemies, (c) in thinning 

 out overcrowded beds, and (d) spat transplantation. Its value is not properly 

 assessed if account be taken of the first item alone or even of the first and the last. 



Every live coral removed and replaced by a fragment of clean cultch may mean 

 the addition of three oysters at the next fishery; every starfish destroyed does mean 

 scores of oysters saved from destruction ; every Clione-riddled block of coral bleached 

 on the shore will tend to reduce the widespread havoc this inconspicuous sponge 

 causes amongst the oysters. The immense advantage that accrues from keeping the 

 banks in a state of thorough cleanliness can well be appreciated by an agriculturist 

 who knows how his crops fall off if weeds be allowed to run riot unchecked, if fungoid 

 and insect pests be ignored, if the soil be never disturbed and if sun and air be 

 excluded therefrom. 



(d) Thinning out of oysters. — The evil effects attendant upon overcrowding of the 

 ovsters which so often takes place upon certain of the Indian banks have been laid 

 stress upon, and I think sufficiently demonstrated. The remedy suggested consists 

 of thinning out at suitable time. The dredge again is the only remedial agent. 

 Thinning out, transplantation, and cleaning the bank may all proceed conjointly — 

 the thinned out oysters being deposited on unoccupied ground, while the foreign 

 organisms and the cultch materials will be taken ashore, the former to be destroyed, 

 the latter to be bleached. 



V. Creation of a Fisheries Department. 



A Fisheries Department should be constituted under scientific control and 

 the work of inspection of the pearl banks and superintendence of the chank fishery 

 transferred thereto as the most important duties under its control. 



Such a plan would enable these two important departments to be developed 

 economically and on sound practical lines, would enable attention to be given to the 

 development of other fishing industries, marine and fresh-water, at present under no 

 scientific supervision, and finally would set free the Port Officer at Tuticorin from 

 work foreign to the important duties involved in the charge of the port and harbour 

 of Tuticorin, which would then receive his undivided attention. 



Ceylon, JAMES HOENELL, 



February 1905. Marine Biologist to the Govt, of Ceylon. 



