Page 224 - PERSIAN 2 1879_1883

54 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP THE PERSIAN GULP
POLITICAL

APPENDIX A TO PART III.
Notes on Ska-pisuino in the Persian Gulp by Lieutenant I
MacIvor, Assistant Political Resident, Persian Gulp.
Fish, fresh or cured, with dates, onions, and a small quantity 0f eitlier
barley or rice, constitutes the staple food of the majority of the poorer
class of natives, Arabs and Persians, inhabiting the sea-board all round
the Persian Gulf, the 'Om4n, Ratinah, and Mckran Coasts. Large
quantities of fish are cured and carried iuto the interior, and a consider­
able export trade is also carried on iu salt aud dried fish, shark fins fish
sounds and fish oil from the Gulf and Muscat to Zanzibar, Mauritius
India, and elsewhere.
Fishing, therefore, forms a most important industry, indeed next to
pearl-fishing, the most important industry* in the Gulf.
Fishing localities.—-Fishing is carried on more or less extensively
’
throughout the whole of the Persian Gulf, the 'Orndn Sea aud off the
*Om6n Coast. The chief fishing localities, arranged as far as possible iu
order of importance, are as follow
(1.) Off Muscat,* and the Batinah Coast from Ras Dibba to
Itas-el-Hadd.
(2.) Ruoos-el-Jibal, extending from Ras-el-Kheymah to Ras Dibba;
the chief places ln*ing Macaca, Fillara, Dubat, Thish, Thabasb, Komzar,
Gobbat All, and Khubba.
(3.) The sea al»out the Island of Kishm, extending from Ilorinuz
to Tombs and Al-Kuis; the chief places being Lar-Soor in the Clarence
Straits, Ilenjam, Tombs, and Shinas.
(4.) The sea at the bead of the Gulf from the Island of Felichah
to the Islands of Dcyreh and Bunuch.
(5.) About Bahrain and the Arab Coast from Aboo Tliabi to
Ras-el-Kheymah.
Time of year for sca-Jishiny,—Fishing is carried on all through the
year, no special fishing seasons being observed. During the pearl-diving
and date seasons fewer boats are engaged in sea-fishing, as a portion of
the fishermen go to the pearl banks, and in the date season numbers of
the fishermen are employed in assisting to collect the date harvest.
In the cold weather sometimes for days at a time the fishing boat*
are unable to put to sea owing to storms. The best fishing seasons vary
in different parts of the Gulf, but to particularize: from February jo
the end of May and from the end of August to November would
perhaps be considered the best fishing seasons all round throughout the
OulL
• Muscat it an extraordinarily prolific place for fish. Lieutenant-Colonel Miles,
ticml Agent, Musrat. writs*—- The abundance of fish in Muscat harbour ia almost increuioj
and attracts the notice of all strangers. It sec ins to be the favourite breeding-puce
all the fish ia this part of the Arabian Sea.**