782 JOUBNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIIL 
declared in its first annual report ( for 1917-18 ) its appreciation of the 
need for scientific investigation, it seemed as if our authorities had at last 
become alive to a public duty recognised and acted upon by all civilised 
maritime countries, which had here been too long ignored. 
A decided step forward was taken in 1918, when it was resolved to 
acquire a steam trawler to investigate the unknown fishery resources of 
the deep sea, and at the same time to secure the services of a “ Marine 
Biologist with knowledge and experience of the scientific and economic 
sides of the industry, who will investigate the resources to be exploited 
and make proposals for the means of doing so and the necessary organi- 
sation." 
The above is quoted from the annual report of the Department of 
Industries for 1918-19, which further goes on to say : “This is a field for 
Government endeavour analogous to the exploration of the country’s 
mineral resources by the GedTogical Survey of India.” 
The Director of Industries qualifies and dilutes this point of view by adding: 
“ In the case of fisheries, however, I consider that mere exploration work 
should, at the outset, be subordinated to the policy of ascertaining definitely 
whether trawling will or will not pay in Bombay waters. If it does pay, and 
perhaps even if it does not pay, there will probably be for many years to 
come a rich field for scientific and economic enquiry.” By trawling here 
is apparently meant the operations of the Government’s experimental 
vessel. 
It appears to us that the Department of Industries showed an undue 
haste to get down to a commercial basis. Borrowing its own metaphor 
of the Geological Survey he would be a very short-sighted geologist who 
limited his attention in the field only to those minerals which could be 
immediately disposed of at a profit. 
The fishing scheme materialised in the appearance of the Steam 
Trawler “ William Garrick ” at Bombay in March 1921, and trawling 
operations were begun towards the end of May 1921. The explor- 
atory object appears from the outset to have been subordinated to 
the catching and landing of fish for the market. The experiment of plac- 
ing trawl-caught fish upon the Bombay market was doubtless an interest- 
ing and necessary one, but it is obvious that making the marketing a 
primary consideration would be a handicap, to systematic sea work and 
would make substantial inroads into the time available for the exploration 
of the virgin fishing grounds which are sufficiently vast in any case for a 
single vessel to trawl over. To put exploitation before exploration was on 
the face of it a case of putting the cart before the horse. 
We are informed that the operations were not a commercial success as 
at no time did the proceeds from the sales of fish approach anywhere near 
the working expenses. It was doubtless this circumstance, in the face of 
the financial straits in which the Government found itself in budgeting for 
the financial year 1922-23, which led to the abandonment of trawling at 
the end of last February, after a working period which barely exceeded 9 
months. It seems a sad and untimely fizzling out of a big project which 
must have involved the Government in a very substantial capital outlay-sub- 
stantial enough to merit a longer period of activity one would imagine. 
Our present knowledge of the natural history of the food fishes of these 
parts is practically nil and therefore the publication of the details and the 
results of the work will be awaited with much interest, but it is clear that 
a fisher survey of the seas of a province with over 1,000 miles of coastline 
cannot have been carried very far in so short a period. It is to be hoped 
that although the Bombay Government has not been able to maintain 
its deep-sea trawling project — admittedly an expensive matter in the hard 
