ESTUARINE FISH FARMING
157
The food given to the larvae during the zoea to post-larval stages
is cultured diatoms, eggs, early-stage larvae of bivalves or early
nauplii of Artemia. The food given to the post-larvae is small shrimps,
bivalves, and trash fish caught commercially. Once more, Japan is
lucky in its supply of trash fish, cheap enough to feed to fish and prawns
at a profit.
B. The Jish f r y and prawn f r y industry
Lin ( 1 968) thinks that, until the breeding of Chanos is possible, the
most desirable development would be an improvement in the eficiency
of the fry trade.
At present, the capture of the fry of both Chanos and grey mullet
is mostly a small-scale peasant fishery, operated in season by part-time
casual labour, including women and children. A simple triangular scoop
net may be used and likely places to try are where less saline or fresh
water mixes with sea water, such as in creeks and lagoons or on open
sandy beaches. I saw, in southern India, Chanos of fingerling size caught
in a backwater among mangrove by dragging a rope, garnished with
bunches of straw, rapidly along the surface. The fingerling Chanos
leapt out of the water, and fell into cloths held by people following
the rope. I n Java and Madura, as Schuster describes, simple lures
are used, made of long ropes well garnished with strips of palm leaf
or straw. Staked out at right angles to the beach, these offer shelter
to the Chanos fry moving along the shore ; all the operator has to do
is to pass his net along the lure and collect the fry. I n a more elaborate
manoeuvre, the operator may lay his lure in a circle, and then contract
the circle until the fry are concentrated in the centre €or easy capture.
More efficient methods are used in Taiwan and the Philippines. Not
only scoop nets, but bag-nets and a kind of pelagic trawl are used in
Taiwan (Chen, 1952) from motorized sampans or rafts. I n the Philippines, large hand seines and even a small trawl (Bunag, 1957) are used.
But the call is still for a more effective detecting and catching method,
since the full expansion and profitability of the industry depend on
plentiful and reliable supplies of fry at a cheap price.
The fry of grey mullet are also caught in scoop nets ; usually, two
fishermen using these nets work towards each other and so get more
fry than either would alone. I n the Russian limans, lift-nets are commonly used to catch the fry but, more usually, the fry of grey mullet
and eels are not caught, but induced to enter the ponds by allowing a
slow current to flow out of the sluice. The fry respond to this with
accuracy, and collect in the sluice gate, where they may or may not
be counted before admission to the pond.
157
The food given to the larvae during the zoea to post-larval stages
is cultured diatoms, eggs, early-stage larvae of bivalves or early
nauplii of Artemia. The food given to the post-larvae is small shrimps,
bivalves, and trash fish caught commercially. Once more, Japan is
lucky in its supply of trash fish, cheap enough to feed to fish and prawns
at a profit.
B. The Jish f r y and prawn f r y industry
Lin ( 1 968) thinks that, until the breeding of Chanos is possible, the
most desirable development would be an improvement in the eficiency
of the fry trade.
At present, the capture of the fry of both Chanos and grey mullet
is mostly a small-scale peasant fishery, operated in season by part-time
casual labour, including women and children. A simple triangular scoop
net may be used and likely places to try are where less saline or fresh
water mixes with sea water, such as in creeks and lagoons or on open
sandy beaches. I saw, in southern India, Chanos of fingerling size caught
in a backwater among mangrove by dragging a rope, garnished with
bunches of straw, rapidly along the surface. The fingerling Chanos
leapt out of the water, and fell into cloths held by people following
the rope. I n Java and Madura, as Schuster describes, simple lures
are used, made of long ropes well garnished with strips of palm leaf
or straw. Staked out at right angles to the beach, these offer shelter
to the Chanos fry moving along the shore ; all the operator has to do
is to pass his net along the lure and collect the fry. I n a more elaborate
manoeuvre, the operator may lay his lure in a circle, and then contract
the circle until the fry are concentrated in the centre €or easy capture.
More efficient methods are used in Taiwan and the Philippines. Not
only scoop nets, but bag-nets and a kind of pelagic trawl are used in
Taiwan (Chen, 1952) from motorized sampans or rafts. I n the Philippines, large hand seines and even a small trawl (Bunag, 1957) are used.
But the call is still for a more effective detecting and catching method,
since the full expansion and profitability of the industry depend on
plentiful and reliable supplies of fry at a cheap price.
The fry of grey mullet are also caught in scoop nets ; usually, two
fishermen using these nets work towards each other and so get more
fry than either would alone. I n the Russian limans, lift-nets are commonly used to catch the fry but, more usually, the fry of grey mullet
and eels are not caught, but induced to enter the ponds by allowing a
slow current to flow out of the sluice. The fry respond to this with
accuracy, and collect in the sluice gate, where they may or may not
be counted before admission to the pond.