FISHING INDUSTRIES,

131

Outrigger canoes are the favourite craft of the Sinhalese
fishermen. Inthe larger onesthese hardy men venture daily
even so far as twenty miles from land in quest of the seer—
most esteemed of Ceylon fishes—lining for it as fishers in
English waters do for mackerel. These boats frequently
attain a speed of eight knots in a favourable breeze, skimming
 lightly over the sea by the help of a single huge cotton
sail. It is this brown-winged fleet which forms that
picturesque vanguard of the Island so often met by incoming
steamers long before the coast is clearly distinguishable.
Frail looking as they are, they are remarkably safe in reality,
and it is wonderful what heavy weather they take in their
daily routine. Nothing save the breaking of the outrigger
is to be feared, and that need not occur if ordinary prudence
be observed.
On all the coasts a certain amount of fishing goes on the
whole year round to satisfy the local demand for fresh fish.
Besides this settled industry, much of which is in-shore
fishing, a large number of boats change their fishing grounds
periodically, working off the west and south coasts during
the north-east monsoon, and migrating to the eastern districts
when the turbulent swell of the south-west monsoon
renders fishing difficult and less prosperous in the former
localities.
Comparatively little fish curing or salting is carried on,
notwithstanding that the Government has done much to
encourage the industry by establishing fish-curing yards,
where facilities are given curers to procure the necessary
supplies of salt on favourable terms—a failure partly due to
the supply of fish in the localities where some of these yards
are established being inadequate to meet both the local
demand for fresh fish and that of the curer. As a
eonsequence the industry there languishes, as operations
cannot be undertaken on a scale of magnitude sufficiently
great to be profitable. More energy and capital than are at
present available are required, and to be successful curers
must work on a foundation of well thought out organization,
rided by the utilization of modern and improved methods of
sea fishing and of curing. Having relation to this question
is the fact that cured or salted fish” (from India chiefly)
was imported in 1902 to the extent of 237,879 ewt. valued
at Rs. 1,766,524, to which must be added Rs. 2,026,928
worth of dried fish from the Maldive Islands—a total of
Rs. 3,793,452 ($1,264,484) worth of imported fish. Against
this enormous import we have as offset the triviality of
Rs. 17,706 worth of Ceylon cured fish exported during the
same period.