Abstract
IF the Japanese now working in the Bay of Bengal can overcome the marketing difficulties, there seems to be no doubt that they will very materially increase the supply of fresh fish in those ports to which they bring their catches, and in this respect will benefit the inhabitants ; at the same time, it must be remembered that this is but one side of the fishing industry and that much material is obtained in the trawl that can be turned, by suitable treatment, to other uses, such as the preparation of dried and salted fish and the manufacture of fish-oil, fish-meal and even fish-manure. In the past, the bulk of the fish guano that is prepared in the Province of Madras is exported, through Ceylon, to other countries and particularly to Japan ; the value of this export rose, under the fostering care of the Madras Fishery Department, from 188 tons, valued at Bs. 13,648, in 1910–11, to 32,000 tons, valued at Rs. 24,40,000 in 1922–23, and in 1927–28 it had risen even further to 100,000 tons. If the Japanese trawling in the Bay of Bengal proves to be a success, it is highly probable that in the very near future there will be a marked falling off in the sales to Japan of these Indian fishery products, to the great detriment of the Madras fishermen.
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Indian Coastal Fisheries and their Exploitation. Nature 140, 270 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140270b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140270b0