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THE FISHING METHODS.
One of the most notable features of Hong Kong fisheries is the entire absence of power-driven vessels. It might seem at first sight that the Chinese fishermen are too conservative and reluctant to adapt machinery But the causes for this prejudice are not so to their methods of fishing. simple. There is more behind the problem than appears on the surface. The inefficient administration of the Chinese Government certainly is one reason and the policy of the Colony may perhaps be another. Sometime before 1927 the Japanese, evidently taking advantage of the prevailing con- ditions, began to organize a fishing company in Hong Kong, equipped with modern power-driven vessels and employing improved fishing methods to fish in the South China Sea with the obvious object of securing a monopoly and controlling the entire industry in the Colony and in South China. The company had its highest development in 1935-1936 but since the out- break of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 its business has been in suspension. The present is a great opportunity for the Chinese Government and the Colony to come to the rescue and inaugurate their own fishery Board.
The next point of interest bearing on the question is that the Chinese fishermen belong to a special class of people known as tan ka or boat family (population). For generations and generations they have confined their entire life to their boats, regarding the vessels not only as means of support, but also as their only home. In this connection they have acquired a habit of crowding themselves into the limited space of a single boat or junk. The fact that there are 77,000 persons living in 2,800 boats, the largest of which does not exceed 85 feet in length, and the majority of which are less than 60 feet long shows the extent of overcrowding. In the case of long liners, a boat of about 70 feet long would provide space for accom- modation of 40 to 45 persons including men, women and children besides space for fish, salt, gear, food and miscellaneous holds. As a consequence of this habit of overcrowding and of the inferiority of the boat and the gear employed, one fishermen on an average earning only about 80 dollars per annum, poverty is inevitable and he has no money to spend on modern scientific improvements as affecting his traditional calling.
In spite of the clumsy sail-driven fishing junks and overcrowding in the boats the fishing gear and methods of Hong Kong, however, are univer- sal in general principle. We have in China the same kinds of fisheries as those practiced all over the world, which may be classified into the so-called The big trawling deep-sea fisheries and the inshore fisheries, although there is no definite line which can be drawn to separate them in several cases. junks, of course, can easily be distinguished from the beach seining sam- pans. Under the class of deep-sea fishing four main methods can be recognized, trawling, seining, gill-netting and lining. Although in the present report space does not allow for detailed discussion of the different and methods yet the following brief description of each kind may help gear the reader to understand the general condition of the local fisheries.
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TRAWLING.--In Hong Kong all the trawls are operated by a pair of two or three-masted sail-driven junks. The trawl is in the form of a long, more or less conical bag with the two wings equal in length, varying in total length from 24 to 55 fathoms. It is a contrivance slowly dragged along the bottom of the sea specially for such demersal fishes as groupers, sea-breams, golden threads, flat fishes, sharks, rays, etc. The trawling junks are the most important units in local fisheries. It is estimated that over 80% of the local fishery products come from the trawling junks.
SEINING. Any fishing carried out according to that basic principle upon which the fish are caught in a complete or semi-circular wall of netting laid out by one or more small boats can be classified under the method of scining, and the net is called the seine. Local seines varying up to 800 fathoms in length are of several kinds, namely, purse seine, drag seine, haul seine, large yelloow croaker seine, beach seine, etc. The seine is designed to catch both pelagic and demersal fishes. Bright light and dynamite are usually employed to help the operation.
In
GILL-NETTING.-There are two main types of gill-netting deve- loped in local fisheries, the drift gill-netting and the set gill-netting. both cases the net is laid as a long wall of netting which shoals of such fishes as white herring, mackerels, thread fins, groupers, sea-breams, yellow croakers, flat fish, crabs and sea snails encounter.
LINING.-Lining is one of the most interesting and extensively practiced methods for catching fish and squids. Lines may be divided into two main classes, the hand lines and the long lines. To the first category belong those that vary from the simplest form of a line on which one hook is attached to such comparatively complicated types provided with 7 to 12 hooks as the railing lines. Whatever the case may be, hand lines must be continuously attended by one or more fishermen who on feeling the bite of the fish must immediately haul in the line. Under the second category two kinds may be recognized, namely, the deep-sea long lines and the inshore long lines. As the names imply deep-sea long lines and inshore long lines are distinguished on the basis of the grounds on which lining is practiced. Since a long line is a collection of a large number of snooded hooks attached to the main line it is useless to attend the line with the hooks continuously. The line must be hauled up at definite intervals regardless of the presence or absence of fish. Commercially, the hand lines are not so important as the long lines, but as sport and recreation the former means a great deal to the residents of the Colony.
sampans
There are 107 sea-going long liners provided with 4 to 8 registered in Hong Kong, which fish from 30 to more than 100 miles off Hong Kong, Pinghoi, Swabue, Toishan, etc., where the depth of water varies from 20 to 60 fathoms. Within territorial waters of the Colony there are at least 6o small long liners fishing for sea-breams, croakers, head grunts, groupers, black and false halibuts and bringing them alive to the local
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