Pearl fishing

“ It has been said that the natives thus engaged are much to be pitied for the treatment which they receive from the pearl fishers, and common sense would show that, amongst the rough class of men of whom many of the boats' crews are composed, the dark-skinned races are certain to be at great disadvantage, especially in a spot so far to the north, and consequently so remote from head-quarters. The season of pearl fishing begins in November and continues until April. ”

“ Gathering pearl shells and pearls is the principal industry of the semi-amphibious natives of the hundreds of palm-crowned and foam-girdled islands of the southern Pacific, commonly known as the South Sea Islands. Among these the most prominent for pearl fishing are the Tuamotu Islands or Low Archipelago, the Society Islands, the Marquesas, the Fiji Islands, Penrhyn or Tongareva, and New Caledonia. ”

“ There was also formerly a considerable pearl-fishery at this place: and Camden speaks of the shell-fish in the Irt producing pearls. Sir John Hawkins obtained from government the right of fishing for pearls in that river. The pearls were obtained from mussels, by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who sought for them at low water, and afterwards sold them to the jewellers. About the year 1695, a patent was granted to some gentlemen, for pearl-fishing in the Irt; but how the undertaking prospered is uncertain. The pearl-mussels do not appear to have been very plentiful for many years. ”

“ The fisheries of Ceylon were formerly very valuable, but at present the banks show signs of exhaustion, from over-fishing most probably. In 1798 they are said to have produced nearly a million dollars' worth of pearls, but now they seldom yield more than a hundred thousand dollars' worth. The inhabitants along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, the Chinese seas, and the islands of Japan, are also engaged in the pearl fishing. ”

“ Further west, on the Persian coast, the Arabian gulf and the Muscat shore, as well as in the Red sea, pearls are found.
In these latter countries the pearl fishing commences in July, for during this and the next month the sea is usually calm. When the boats have arrived over the bed, they anchor, the water being eight or nine fathoms deep. The divers carry their bag tied around their waists, and plug their nostrils with cotton, then closing their mouths, are sunk by a stone rapidly to the bottom. ”

“ Somerset, where we landed, is principally a pearl-fishing station, and the pearl fishers who live there are a very rough-looking lot. The business is very profitable, those engaged in it estimating that the pearls pay all the expenses of their enterprise and a little more, while the nacre, or mother-of-pearl, the smooth lining of the shells, is a clear profit. The exportation of shells from Queensland is worth, annually, about half a million dollars. The pearl shells sell ordinarily for about one thousand dollars a ton. They are gathered by black divers under the superintendence of white men. ”

“ In 1609 Joao dos Santos wrote that on the sandy sea bottom about the Bazaruto Islands, which are about 150 miles south of Sofala, there were many large oysters which bore pearls, and the natives fished for them by diving in practically the same manner as in the Persian Gulf. [182]
In a personal memorandum, Sir Robert Edgcumbe states that in the very early times of Portuguese exploitation on the eastern coast of Africa, pearl fishing was carried on in these waters. For a long period the tenure of power exerted by the Portuguese was of a feeble character ”

“ I have been informed by a British merchant who, under license from the government of India, conducts the pearl fishing in the Bay of Kuratchee, that the method pursued is to bring the shells to shore as they are brought up from the bottom of the sea until a considerable quantity has been accumulated, disposed in a series of small contiguous heaps, and that then the men stand round the heaps, open the shells, and search for the pearls. ”

“ Pearl oysters are found in immense numbers on banks having a calcareous foundation. They are extraordinarily prolific, the spat of one oyster being estimated at upwards of several hundred thousands to millions, so that were it not for the natural enemies of their young and the liability of being swept away and scattered by storms before they have anchored, the banks would be over-crowded with the myriads produced. Some idea of the numbers may be gained from the fact that during the fishing season the Ceylon divers raise about one million each day. ”

“ All things considered, the largest and best equipped fisheries in the world to-day are those on the coast of Australia. Not as many pearls are found as at Ceylon. The main object of fishing is the shell, which is large, heavy, and furnishes the best quality of mother-of-pearl of the white variety. From Charlotte's Bay on the north-eastern coast, all along the northern coast and around to Exmouth Gulf on the western coast, pearl oysters are abundant. Farther south at Sharks Bay, the oysters are smaller and the pearls, though of good shape and luster, run yellow. ”

“ Durnford, "there are too seasons for pearl fishing. The first is in March and April, and the last in August and September, and the more rain there falls in the year, the more plentiful are the fisheries. The method of procuring the pearls is rather singular. The diver binds a stone six inches thick, and a foot long under his body; which serves him as ballast, prevents his being driven away by the motion of the water, and enables him to walk steadily under the waves. ”

“ In the large beds often found in our Western Rivers, fishing is done wherever possible by dredging. Metal scoops, hand, shoulder and scissor-rakes are used and the mollusks, taken in immense quantities are cooked to open them, then cleaned of the meat which is afterwards examined for pearls. This method is used where the mussels lie in great masses or on sandy bottoms. Where there are boulders or large stones, a great number of hooks are dragged over the beds. ”

“ The different beds are inspected from time to time, and no fishing is permitted until the condition of the pearl-oysters on the particular reef thrown open seems to warrant the most valuable returns. In the examination of a bed apparently in suitable condition, several thousand oysters—usually eight or ten thousand—are taken up and the pearls found therein are examined and valued. If they average Rs.25 or Rs.30 per thousand oysters, profitable results may be expected, provided there is a sufficient quantity of oysters on the bed. This method of determining the fishery is very ancient. ”

“ As desire for a thing for its inherent qualities spreads, there is added a larger number of those who seek to possess it for the profit they can make in supplying that desire. Not many years ago, fishermen along the streams of remote parts of Kentucky had no eye for the beauty of a pearl, and no knowledge that men and women lived who prized them. If while fishing, the fisherman's hook fell between the gaping valves of a mollusk it was immediately seized. ”

“ The divers fish with the dress. The usual method of fishing is for a schooner of eighty to one hundred tons to put out with a number of luggers of from eight to ten tons. Each lugger [250] is manned by a captain, a cook, one man at the life-line, two men at the air-pumps and one diver. Each lugger will average half a ton of shells per month ranging from 1600 to 2000 to the ton. The pearls like the shells run white.
The Australians are not only pushing this industry along their own coast, but are extending operations along the islands north toward the equator, wherever it is possible. ”

“ In this fishery many persons are drowned, either by remaining too long at the bottom, or because they become entwined or entangled in the cord, or such carnivorous fish as the shark devour them. This is the manner of fishing pearls in all the Indies, and many fishermen die from the dangers aforesaid, and from the excessive and constant labor, the little food, and the maltreatment they have. The emperor was led to enact a law among those whom Blasco Nunez Vela brought, which imposed the penalty of death upon him who should forcibly compel any free Indian to fish for pearls. ”

“ Much fishing is done by independent naked native divers, in a manner similar to that of the Hindus and Arabs, but some of the large concessionaires supply their divers with helmets and other modern appliances.
Schooners of various sizes having several boats, carry the fishing parties to the banks and the men live on them through the entire season. The daily catches are delivered to an armed boat which carries the oysters ashore, where they are at once searched for pearls. ”

“ It is the intention of the East African Pearl Company, as soon as the investigation of the resources is completed, to police the fishing grounds so as to put an end to the removal of immature oysters, which yield only seed-pearls, and to permit them to attain maturity. In addition to this, it is their purpose to utilize the extensive beds of oysters lying in comparatively deep water, which are now inaccessible to the natives owing to their lack of diving skill. ”

“ Owing to the extended area over which the fishing is prosecuted and the existence of undisturbed breeding-oysters in the deeper waters, the reefs are not readily exhausted, notwithstanding the tens of millions of mollusks annually removed therefrom.
The fisheries are at their height from June to September, when nearly every person on the coast is interested in some capacity, if not in fishing, at least in furnishing supplies, cleaning shells, buying pearls, etc. In April and May the water on the deep banks is so cold that the fishermen confine their efforts to the more shallow areas. ”

“ After these come the ancient fisheries of India, the most prolific in the world. The oysters here are smaller than those of the Arabian Sea and the shells are of no value, but they mature rapidly and yield great quantities of pearls. Myriads of them cover the shoals and banks between the coast of India, at the South-eastern point, and Ceylon, and as the beds are under government supervision, they cannot be destroyed by the reckless fishing of immature oysters. ”

“ It generally lies scattered and detached over the pebbly bottoms, but it also exists in reefs or beds which are sometimes of considerable extent. These occur usually where a stretch of water is still and deep, and oftentimes where the depth places the mussels beyond the reach of the fishermen. Apart from the pearls it contains, the mussel is of no economic value except that in some localities the mollusk is used for bait in cod-fishing. ”

“ For more than two centuries the Saxon fisheries have been carefully regulated by inspectors, who examine the streams every spring, and determine where fishing is to be permitted. After a tract has been fished over, it is left to rest for ten or fifteen years. The fisher-folk open the valves of the mussels with an iron instrument, and if they find no pearl restore the mussel to the water. ”

“ It is evident from the quantities discovered in some of the mounds that a very great number of pearls, many of large size, must have been owned by these aborigines, and they were evidently quite expert in the art of drilling them. Pearls must have been freely used for ornamental purposes, and it is clear that many rivers in this region must have produced them in great numbers, when we consider that in all probability the mussels were taken only as they were required for food or for bait in fishing, and had probably reached their full growth. ”

“ It is on the north-west coast of the Island of Ceylon, in the Indian Ocean, that the Pearl Oyster most abounds, and there it is that the Pearl fishery is conducted in the most extensive, systematic, and successful manner; this fishing commences at the beginning of March, and upwards of two hundred boats are usually employed in it; in each of these boats are ten divers, who go down to the Oyster-beds, five at a time, and so relieve each other; there are besides thirteen other men who manage the boat, and attend to the divers. ”

“ Dressed only in a scanty garment, these women swim out to the fishing grounds, distant several hundred yards in some cases, carrying with them a stout knife and a small sack suspended from a gourd. On reaching the reefs, they dive to the bottom—sometimes to a depth of six or eight fathoms—and by means of the knife, remove the abalones from the bottom and place them in the sack. They may remain out an hour, diving repeatedly until the sack is filled, when they swim back to the shore. Pearls are found only rarely ”

“ All over the South Sea, pearl oysters are found about the islands and in the lagoons within the atolls which stud it, but in quantities too small in many places to induce capital to establish fisheries. Fishing for them is confined therefore to native divers who are rewarded by the occasional find of a few pearls, which often they sell at ridiculous prices to the stray traders who may chance to come their way. ”

“ In recent years the development of manufacturing industries in Saxony and the resultant pollution of the water has greatly reduced the abundance of the mollusks and consequently the output has been much restricted. The average annual yield in the twenty years ending in 1879 was 163 pearls; in the twenty years ending in 1899 it was 66 pearls, and in the six years ending in 1905 the annual average was 58 pearls. Owing to high water, there was no fishing in 1888; and with a view to permitting the resources to recuperate, the fishery was suspended from 1896 to 1899, inclusive. ”