Abstract
THE administrative report for 1934 of the marine biologist of Ceylon, Mr. A. H. Malpas, shows that as the results of restricted inspections by dredging of the pearl banks there were no spatfalls in the northern paars and Cheval paars. A certain number of second and third year oysters were, however, present, but not in sufficient quantities to offer a prospect of immediate fisheries, although if conditions are favourable they may provide heavy spatfalls. A scheme has been prepared for the establishment in Colombo of a fisheries research station combined with an aquarium which is under consideration. This provides in the first instance for a small biological research station capable of being enlarged as funds are available. It will be equipped with research laboratories and freshwater and marine aquaria essential for fisheries investigation work. An aquarium will be attached, to which the public will be admitted. This is an alternative scheme to one outlined in earlier reports which provided for exhaustive investigations in these waters with a modern fishing vessel equipped with the latest fishing appliances in order to determine the lines on which the local industries could be most profitably developed, which the Executive Committee for Local Administration has definitely decided to abandon. Under the new scheme, the field of research will include investigations into life-histories and general bionomics of all aquatic animals of importance in Ceylon, into the culture of pearl and edible oysters, into the farming of estuaries and fresh-water fishes and turtle, and into the importance of various indigenous larvivorous fishes in relation to the suppression of tropical fevers and the breeding and distributing of the most active forms throughout Ceylon.
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Marine Biology in Ceylon. Nature 136, 471 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136471a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136471a0