Miarican Consulate 

 Aden^ Arabia^ Jime 7^ 1948, 



¥OMTiiRY 



......4.4»* 



REC'D 

 JJNS 22 



DISI 



IIP* 



OCD 



fK 



NKA 



OFD 



EKP 



eiA 



COM* 

 FISH &W 

 TAR 

 tCA 



" U.S.N.M. 



OF M^ jubi 



Prepared by Robert Eo Ferris itoiericaii Vice Consul 



Background of the Indugtry 



for many cent^^ries along the southern coast of Arabia ^ 

 whose shores are washed by the waters of the Gulf of Aden 

 and the Indian Ocean ^ fishing has been a casual industry » 

 one whose production methods are most primitive but whose 

 potentialities are believed greats There are none of the 

 intense p roduction methods which characterize this industry 

 in the United States or the Scandinavian coiHitries - powered 

 vessels^ packing houses ^ fish reduction plants - but rather ^ 

 primarily^ there is seen being utilized the primitive canoe > 

 some very small dhows j> and hand equipment o Actual product- 

 ion figures have never been compiled ^ but it is known that 

 while most of the fish caught is used for local consumption 

 many shipments of dried and salted fish are sent irregularly 

 into the hinterlands g to Ceylon and India g and to the Briti&h 

 Somaliland coast o 



Location of gishing ' upounds 



Tiiere is no specific area where fish are r;iost abundant a 

 as far as the Aden Government authorities are able to deter- 

 mine - this seeming to remain the secret of the individual 

 fisherman. The continental shelf is quite narrow, of not 

 more than five or six fldies extent into the Gulf; but along 

 this shelf 9 from the Island of i'erim, in the Straits of Bab- 

 el-iiandeb, to the iiahra Uoast» approximately five hundred 

 miles east of Men^ is done aost of the fishing for sardines » 

 rock fish, snappers, and groupers* ahark, and export fish 

 primarily, is most often taken on the i.ahra Ooast, at t»ocotras, 

 and on the Somaliland Coi^st. 



Unfortunately, southern ^rabia does not have Qood harbors 

 nor Is there very'much fresh v;ater. Thus the technical diffi- 

 culties would be q.uite great should major expansion of this 

 industry be desired - v,hich appears to be true at this tir.e. 

 The further east along the Southern Coast one travels the more 

 fish he finds. According tc surveys made by the Fisheries 

 /idvlsor to the British Secre^tary of State the best fishing 



'T'founds 



