purchased at the same time at an extremely lovif price <, At 

 Al Hisl about ninety fishermen within a seven-months period 

 produced about a million pounds ^ or within an eight-nonth 

 season about an average of five and one-half tons per imxio 

 At Shihr - which experts dried sardines^ sardine oil^ and 

 wet salted kingfish - were caught curing this season by 

 some 3j600 men a weight equivalent to about 8^000 tons of 

 wet sardines g and 300 tons of wet kingfish or about Z.Z 

 tons par man for export. It is pj^esunied that a like quan- 

 tity could have been sent up«country and consuried locally^ 

 According to figurs obtained from local sources in Deceiiiber, 

 1946^ MO p 000 worth of sardines were dried in h&en. Two 

 hundred sixty miles east of Aden are found abundant sardines , 

 suitable for the production of sardine oil and the dried * 

 articlEo The sardines are spread out on the sand^ allowed to 

 dry thoroughly in but a few days^ and then are exported ^ 

 mainly as fodder for cattle, and as fertilizer o The sardine 

 season begins at the end of the southwest monsoon in Sept- 

 - - and between October and the end of November they a re at 



^^^ttest. Throughout the rest of the year^ from January 

 or become gradually scarcer o The larger fish^ tuna^, 



, etc.^ are gutted^ splits scored, and -well rubbed 

 to These fish are as tasty as any on the world mar- 



arehouses regularly held in stock well over one 

 tons of this dried sardine product <> 



Tunny J or tuna^ between the nionths of September to Jan« 

 uary are at their bestg the greatest quantity beinf, caught in 

 October to Itecembero In October to December they are caup.ht 

 in depths of sixty to seventy fathoms p v/hilo in January to 

 June they are taken in or over luch greater depths « The 

 kingfish J caught in shallower waters than the tunny is very 

 highly prized o They may be caught by hook or by a keddle- 

 net<, There is no special season for sharko 



Fishing Gear Used 



Of all the methods used to catch fish in the Gulf of iiden 

 the caBmonest is the hook and line*. Used from boats mainly ^ 

 cast nets are the nets most frequently einployedo Waders raay 

 work from the beach or from the rocks casting nets varying 

 in shapes and sizes o The sardine boats cast a larger net of 

 seventy-two feet in ciroumf erencei^ with a mesh of one-half 

 inch baTo The smallest gill net has a mesh of about 120 rows 

 to the yard; medium^sized nets have about ei^-^hty-f our rows to 

 the yard; and a large saraine net; has about fifty-six rows to 

 the yarde 



At Aden Colony and Shuqra beach seines of about ninety 

 yards in lengthy of mesh of one«inch bar^ about fifteen feet 

 deep are used^ The actual net has a long win^j down both sides 

 about thirty yards longg and made of tvvfisted xjalm leaf strips o 

 No floats are needed o 



V ^; The sardine 



UiMGL/iS SIFIl^D ■ ' ' ' 



