^une 7, 1948 



Report NOo 4 <= 4 =» 



seine is a huge thingo The actual net^ 

 forty feet wide by one hundred sixty feet long^ rectangu- 

 lar in shape is made of cotton and vvoven into a fine mesh 

 ninety rows to the yardo The head and foot of the forty- 

 foot openings are fastened to headlines and f ootropes by vej^ 

 long staplings of twisted palm leaf strip thirty inches longo 

 A single heavy stone weights the middle of the footropeo 

 There Moats on the headline ^ but instead a strong 



rope b y IB held by a canoe ^ which acts as the floatc The 

 iie^ ' self is the bunt or pocket of the seinso Twisted 

 pa strips form the wings in the shape of an open mesh'- 



^Oi . ith meshes of twel¥e-inch bar and fourteen rows deep - 

 or seven full meshes deepc To each wing of about 400 yards 

 is attached hauling ropes o 



The use of this gear necessitates fair v^eather^ for it 

 is of great weight and bulk and must be jointly operated from 

 baat and shore o Thirty to fifty i en work the seine ^ and at 

 times the cat ah can be iMiiense. 



Other gear in popular use ares wickerwork traps ^ v^ith 

 non^return valve - used for small fish; the shark spear ^ tv^elve 

 feet longs, detachable barbed point; coBimon cotton cord and 

 simple hooks - most of which ^ incidentally ^ are inported from 



Kcrwavc 



Oftsns> lata at nite and in the early morning hours ^ one 

 may see camel trains slowly plodding into Men Colony s> laden 

 with the fish caught near the eastern coaatal villa^^es anc to 

 be sold in Aden markets that dayo The catches are either 

 delivered to a fov/ merchants to be dried » or are sold openly 

 in native market stalls o 



Aden Shell Fishing i^ompany 



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A new division of the fishing industry » that of processin^g 

 shells into rough button forms » has been developed in iijden» 

 but it is no market for local f ishermenj for the shells are 

 mainly liuported. from Australia and some from the Red ^>ea area. 

 At the uresent writing; the Aden tihell Fishing Company occupies 

 a lar^'e'p rented building, containing within it storac® rooms 

 for the rough~f inishe ^irticle, large cement tanks in which 

 the shells are soaked » processing rooms » and a machine shop 

 (operated by fiv9 Italian machinists) where the processing 

 machines are both made and repaired o Only the rough button 

 form has been produced thus far^ and after cutting the forms 

 are graded and sold to the ♦'Dominion Manufacturing Coi^pany" » 

 liarnacaj Cyprus j where they are finished* 



The spiral J cone~shayed trocas is the shell used at 

 present, from which forty* to fifty button forms are cut; but 



experiments 



UJ^CLASSmiD 



