The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-03-02
COASTAL FISHERIES
OF PERU UNDEvELOPED
Would Furnish Sufficient Sea Food
for Whole World Says Recently
Returned Explorer

waters are teeming with enough fish
to feed the world and her is ands are
all veritable bird sanctuaries, accord
ing to Robert Cushman Murphy, cur
|taor of natural science OF the Brook
lyn Museum, just returned from six
mon his exploration in South America
with 500 photographs and 10000 feet
of motion picture film. Mr.. Murphy
said that on one island he found the
most abundant seabird lie on EARTH
as many as 100000 feathered crea-
lures of single species.
The fisheries Of Peru, he said are
unorganized and, although fish are
pen iful, including such edible vari-
cites as the bonito, anchoveta, perjer.
Trey. or smelt. the congril (semewhat
like cod)' the founder and corvena
comparable TO the American salmon),
Peruvians literally Ego hundry" be
cause of their scarcity and high
price inland due to the problem of ic-
ling and transportation
A few miles off the coast, the re-
turned explorer said, he let down a
net and drew 1t out of the sea fill ed
with four varieties of most delicious
edible crabs. These crustaceans he
said, would furnish the basis for 4 big
canning industry both for home and
foreign consumption, vast quantities
of such seafood now being annually
imported by the United States from
Japan.
The wonderful fish and bird life"
of Peru, Mr.. Murphy attributed TO the
Humboldt Current0 a cold body OF
oceanic water which flows along 1900
fmiles of the coast. He made many
observations of this current, he said,
following. those of Alexander Agassi2
and DR.. Robert F. Coker of the United
States Fish Commission, pioneers in
such work. Although Peru's proxim-
| ity to the equator, he said, would
cause one to suppost that it might
have a temperature Ike that of Flor
ida, its ac ual temperature was more
! like that of Boston. The result of the
interesting correlation between the
Humboldt Current and the abundance
of fish and bird life, he said, he has
covered in more than 500 pages of
data He also bought with him six
teen cases and crates, in many OF
which are specimens of curious mar
inc and feathered creatures.
| Mr.. Murphy called attention. to the
guano or fertilizer deposits of Peru,
which, he said may be doubled by the
conservation methods devised by Fran
cisco Bal-en, a Peruvian, who he de-
scribed as "one of the most far-sight-
led and able economists in the world :"
In furtherance of Mr.. BaHen's plans,
the explorer said, he advocated in
creasing the breeding area of the
guano producing birds, at present con.
fined to fifteen islands, the largest OF
which are the Chinchi and Lobos, and
where deposits OF fertilizer $50 feet
in thickness have been found.
The value OF the guano deposits. he
said, was also due to the action of
the Humboldt Current, abe cold winds
from which, blowing over The arid
land preserved the fertilizng quail.
whose work was aided by the Peru
Wan government, said the islands
might be enlarged by dynamiting the
cliffs into the sea. He also urged the
stoppage of guano gathering during
the "courtship" of the birds. The
guano, he said, is dug by natives in
The interior of the islands and carried
in small railway cars to the coast
where Il is put aboard ships. axpor
tation of the fertilizer. he said, was
being held upon account of high ocean
freight rates.
The guano birds were enumerated
I la, NJ. 4. i
cormorent Commercially worth SIS
/ a pair in Lima); the pelican and Two
species of gannet. BY actuai compu-
tation of the nests of some of these
birds per metre on one of the islands
he estimate that more han 100000
of that one species inhabited It. Mr..
Murphy said the ancient Incas Of Peru
highly priced the guano birds and pen
allied with death anyone who killed
one. Many of the motion films he
brought back. he said, showed the life
history of the seabrds as we'll as the
native fisheries and the guano indus
try.
In the period from 1910 to 1908, Mr..
Murphy said, many of the birds were
killed off and 1t is only in recent years
that eHortS have been made to con
serve this important resource of Peru.
President Leguia, and other promin-
ent men, he said, have encouraged
foreign scientific men TO visit Peru
for the purpose of ascertaining the
best conservation methods. steam
trawler and two launches were plac-
ed at Mr.. Murphy's disposal upon his
arrival at Lima, and from these he
conducted his researches and expert
ments. Guano, he said, is the best
fertilizer known for sugar cane and
before the war vast dpan 'itie9 CO +
were shipped to the United States
through Charleston, S. c. Peru her
SELF, he said, is now utilizing the fer
tilizer not only for growing sugar cane
but for rice and cotton.
Ocean freight rates, Mr. Murphy
said, might be affected by the compe-
tition which has sprung up since the