in
the Mindoro Sea generally the ever-changing subaquatic currents cover
the oyster beds with mud and sand and uncover them again at intervals
of years. This is in addition to those seasonable gales and storms
which visit every sea and leave their mark on the ocean bed no less
than on the coast-line. No protection of the beds by human agency is
therefore required. The invisible oysters cannot be reached by the
diver.
At
the time I am speaking of the second inquiry into the problem of
protecting the oyster beds in Sulu waters against undue exploitation
was being held by the Philippine Islands Bureau of Fisheries, and the
learned professor at the head of the Commission consulted me with
reference to some aspects of the pearling industry about which at that
particular period I was probably better informed than anyone else on
the island. No customs returns for the pearl catch were compulsory,
nor could they have been enforced, and the authorities were entirely in
the dark as to the annual value of pearls fished in the Sulu Sea. As I
was not only the biggest buyer of pearls, but was in one way or another
offered for purchase nearly everything of the kind that was brought
in, and moreover kept notes of what I had seen or bought, I was in a
fairly good position to give the desired information. In other
respects, too, I was able to make suggestions that were eventually
adopted..
I was already operating two luggers, but these barely paid expenses. The supercargo on the Hetty, one of my boats, was a Filipino named Florian. He was a
flowery specimen. He and the two divers did me right and left, even
selling part of my shell catch to owners of other luggers and
transferring it in some creek before they came into port. What could I
suspect, then, about my pearls which are so small and easily concealed?
I never got more than seed-pearls and a small piece of baroque now and
then from her. With the second boat, the Martha, I was no luckier. In fact, she was even worse as an investment!
What
a mug's game pearling is for one who cannot go out himself in his one
boat and supervise the work, and see that he gets all there is coming
to him! But the game also had its
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