Marine Fish-Farming for India

Excerpt from Marine Fish-Farming for India The physical features of the basin ofarcachon where are Situated the most famous of French marine fish farms were described briefly in Bulletin No. 5, pp. 4 to 7. As there stated the basin is a great backwater roughly triangular in outline. Its area at full tide is about acres, or approximately one-third the Size of Pulicat Lake near Madras. Like the latter Arcachon basin is mar gined along many sections of its Shore by low-lying marshes. These are specially extensive towards the inner or eastern end of the basin where the river Leyre debouches through a network of channels. These del taic flats and marshes when not protected by embank ments are liable to be overflowed during spring tides, and at a very early date a large acreage was converted into salt pans by the erection of dams fitted with sluice gates. With the sea water admitted from the basin from time to time to supply the pans came abundant fry of eels, mullet, and bass these found refuge in the connec ting ditches and in occasional deep pools where the salt workers saw them thrive and fatten and found them a substantial addition to their meagre fare. From this to intentional reservation of definite areas for fish-rearing is a short step, especially as it must early have been noted that such fish-rearing is a less hazardous industry than salt gathering where the harvest is at the mercy of a fickle climate. Till the middle of the 1oth century the methods followed remained extremely primitive at that epoch consequent upon improvement in the means of transport and distribution due to the introduction Of railways, this industry received much attention, methods were refined, and further areas devoted to the purpose. The trade was a very profitable one for the proprietors till about the end of last century, the expenses of upkeep being very small, and the prisoned fish bringing excellent prices in Bordeaux Whenever stormy weather interfered with sea fishing. To-day the owners have to face les sened profits owing to the erection of large refrigerating stores at Arcachon and Bordeaux where reserve fish is kept in stock to meet the emergency of bad fishing weather at sea. In Spite of this the fish farms are considered to give better returns than would be the case if they were drained and put to agricultural or grazing purposes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.