The Malayan fishing industry

Abstract

The fishing industry of the Malay States has inspired investigations since the end of the nineteenth century. The earliest students may . have been more interested in the picturesque fishing methods used by the Malays, but since D.G. Stead wrote his report for the Colonial Research Committee in 1923 the studies have been mainly economic in nature and directed towards finding means to improve the industry for one reason or another. The most important work was the study made by Raymond Firth just before the Second World War, and although primarily an anthropological study it is of major economic value. A short handbook was brought out on the occasion of the inaugural meeting of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council held in Singapore in 1949. In 1955 an official Committee to Investigate the Fishing Industry produced its report and recommendations. At the moment a long awaited enquiry into the marketing and distribution of fish is being carried out with the help of a Canadian expert under the Colombo Plan.