Abstract
AFTER an interval of more than twenty-seven years, the pearl-oyster (Avicula fucata, Gould) has produced pearls off the Madras coast of the Gulf of Manaar, in sufficient quantities to be worth the expense of fishing. The last fishery of the Tuticorin banks took place in the years 1860-62, and resulted in a net profit to Government of Rs. 3,79,297 (£37,929 at par). In olden times, when Tuticorin was in the possession of the Portuguese and Dutch, the fishery used to be carried on much more frequently than it is at the present day, and a difficult problem, which remains to be solved, is, What are the causes of the decline of the pearl fishery, and how can the Tuticorin banks be made to yield a more frequent harvest? Whether the baneful influence of the Mollusca known locally as sooram and killikoy (Modiota sp., and Avicula sp.), the ravages of the file-fishes (Balistes) and Rays (Trygon, &c.), poaching, or currents, are responsible for the non-production of an abundant crop of adult pearl-producing oysters during more than a quarter of a century, it would be impossible to decide until our knowledge of the conditions under which the pearl-oysters breed, develop, and live, is more precise than it is at present.
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THURSTON, E. The Tuticorin Pearl Fishery. Nature 40, 174–176 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040174e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040174e0