Heritage of Sri Lanka - pearl fisheries

Prof W. I. Siriweera

Pearls were the most valuable aquatic resource in Sri Lanka and were exploited from pre-Christian times.

Continued from yesterday

James Stewart has given a detailed description of pearl fisheries as operated in the middle of the Nineteenth Century in his treatise, an account of the Pearly Fisheries of Ceylon.

Pearls necklace

According to him the breeding grounds of the pearl oysters are the rocky banks of the sea 16 to 18 kilometres away from the shore in the District of Mannar, off Jaffna, Balapitiya, Chilaw, off Tambalagama and Negombo. But those worthy of trouble of fishing were mostly found off Mannar.

The life span of oysters is about six years and thereafter they decay and perish. Therefore pearl fisheries could be conducted only at irregular intervals; at most once in five or six years. When the oysters mature completely their byssus begin to break and they fall into the sandy bottom of the sea from the rocky banks they inhabit.

All oysters do not contain pearls and perhaps a chemical reaction in the body and the type of food they consume help some oysters to produce pearls. Those productive ones contain one or many pearls, sometimes as many as sixty, and they are found in all parts of the flesh of the oyster. The pearls are of various shades and colours but the most valuable ones are the silvery white ones.

Rocky banks

When the government decided to conduct a fishery, an examination of the rocky banks were conducted in October. Then the samples of about 3,000 to 5,000 from each bed expected to be fished was taken and examined. Depending on the quality and value of each sample, the decision to fish or not was taken. If the decision was positive the pearl fishery was conducted in the following March when the sea was calm.

Petty traders

Before the fishing commenced, many temporary buildings were constructed by the shore to accommodate troops, watchmen, customs officers, divers, boatmen, labourers etc. and also as store houses or enclosures for oysters.

The boats or canoes were brought a month or six weeks previous to the commencement of fishery. Various kinds of merchandise for sale to the inhabitants in the fishery were also brought in by petty traders.

James Stewart further states that when the date was fixed for the boats to go to sea for fishery they were ordered to be ready to start about mid-night.

Then when signalled, the government guard vessel which carried a larger light than the lights of canoes of fishermen was steered and the others followed it. Each vessel consisted of its owner, ten divers, ten rowers who attended the divers and a government representative.

Every vessel was furnished with five conical stones each weighing 10 to 12 kilograms and tied to a coir cord, sufficiently long to reach the bottom of the sea. These stones were for the divers to hasten their descent to the bottom. Each vessel also was provided with five baskets made of coir or yarn ropes. The two sides of baskets were laced to iron hoops which were slung and suspended to coir cords. The baskets were for the purpose of collecting oysters by the divers.

Oyster basket

After reaching the area of the rocky banks where the pearls were to be fished, the vessels were anchored. At sunrise, when signalled for the commencement of the fishery, scantily clad divers, after a slight moment of meditative ritual, began the descent. Five from each vessel plunged into the sea and swam to their respective sinking stones which had already been lowered from the sides of the vessels by respective attendants.

Each diving stone was suspended by a double cord and the basket by a single rope. On reaching the bottom each diver abandoned the stone and filled the basket with oysters. On a single occasion a diver could remain under water only for 55 to 75 seconds. When he wished to ascend, he jerked the cord of the basket and the respective attendants on board pulled the rope up. The diver also climbed up by holding the same rope and the basket.

On reaching the surface he abandoned the cord and quickly swam to his sinking stone which has been hauled up earlier. Meanwhile the oyster basket was emptied to the vessel by the attendants. When they were ready, the diver went down to the bottom again.

This process of fishing was repeated by five divers in each vessel until they were relieved by the other five to allow resting period for the former. Thus diving was done by two groups alternately. When the day’s work ceased, all vessels moved off from the fishing ground and reached the coast. Then the oysters were conveyed to enclosures by labourers under supervision. In this manner fishery was continued for many days and ran into the month of April.

Overhead expenditure

The oysters were usually washed before separating good ones from the bad ones. For this purpose, they were put in canoes and seawater was poured into them. After washing, the oysters which were presumed to contain pearls were set apart to be cut off. Those which had no pearls were thrown in heaps outside the enclosures. Then the pearls were separated from the washed oysters and were spread on cloth and exposed to the sun to dry.

Pearl fisheries had been an important source of revenue until the middle decades of the 20th century, but thereafter due to several factors such as heavy overhead expenditure, they have been neglected. Concluded