Viewing page 35 of 108

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

but not kept.  Night light fishing did not yield much; just some larval fishes.  Large atherinids were also seen and half beaks.  A pipefish and a [[underline]] Pegasus went [[/underline]] by, but were missed.  Also a small shark came by under the light about 2 feet long.  Crabs were fairly numerous.
May 16 - I lifted the eel pots this morning.  They were placed near the gulf weed banks.  Only one yielded anything, a toadfish, [[underline]] Pomacentrus [[/underline]], and [[underline]] Terapon [[/underline]].  It was clear and hot and calm all morning.  Abdullah, captain, little Yusif, Ahmed, and I went ashore armed with a throw net and a 25 foot seine.  Abdullah caught a tern like the Caspian tern [[image of bird's head with long beak]].  It had a grey back and white below and are apparently breeding now as we saw some eggs and young birds.  I got a young bird which was pickled.  Seine collections were made around the island in sandy spots, all were included in one collection 1 goby, 1 blenny, [[underline]] Sillags, Gerres, Cyprinodon, Chelon, Sparus [[/underline]] etc.  I saw 1 1/2' guitar fish take off into deeper water.  We did not get any Platycephalus probably because the tide was still low.  I saw some more of the same lizards on Shmayly that I had collected before.  At noon, we saw a [[underline]] Chanad [[/underline]] jump clear out of water not over 150 yds, behind the Palestine.  We headed back to Ras Tanura about 1 P.M. to pick up supplies again.  We worked on some of the fish rigging for the Tarat, and hung around till evening.  Everything was screwed up as usual without going into the gory details.  Garley appeared in a new hat from Dhahran for about 10 minutes.  About 7 P.M. we headed back for Shmayly, and at 9:00 P.M. young Yusif landed a shark on hook & line, 72 cm. T.L., 5 lbs. [[symbol for female]] with young ready to be born, U-48-65.
Another one a [[symbol for male]] about 18" was on the hook the next morning which was also included as U-48-65. The night was close and calm interrupted with sudden gusts of hot desert wind.
May 17 - I got up about dawn this morning and used cube root to collect at low tide.  I collected most of the fish from a gulf
[[end page]]
[[start page]]
51
weed area, 4 blennies from a coral rock pool, and a flounder lying still alive on the sand.  I saw closely this morning those fish that [[image of banded goby-like fish and shrimp emerging from a hole, and clam in water]] live in holes in hard muck sand.  The are apparently commensal with a curious mole shrimp which digs the burrow and the fish lives in it.  The fish seems similar in appearance to a large goby something like [[underline]] Periopthalmus [[/underline]]; it is definitely not a parapercid as I thought might be the case when I first saw them in deep water (see p. 28).  I tried to poison a couple of burrows but met with no success.  About 10 A.M. we headed back to west pier to check up on the Tarat.  We spoke to some pot fishermen.  All they had was about 20 lbs of small porgies, faskar, etc.  and several blue crabs.  Next we spoke some stake net fishermen who had a couple of bushels of cuttlefish and crabs, and sold us about a half bushel of bait for 4 reals.  They also coughed up a small ([[underline]] Chilescyllium griseum [[/underline]]) which was a reddish tan in color.  We reached West Pier about 12 noon.  The Tarat crew was out for lunch.  It was windless hot and sunny.  We tied alongside the new fish pier just north of west pier, and waited till about 1:30 P.M., before all the Tarat crew assembled, and Jim shoved off with the Tarat I remained with the Palestine.  We headed S.E. for Naywa with northerly light airs and a clear sky.  We trolled ^[[insert]] one [[/insert]] [[strikethrough]] two [[/strikethrough]] lines and passed several schools of Scomber ([[underline]] Jibbabeh [[/underline]]) the usual size about 20" jumping around in the water with terns diving from above.  No strikes from them as usual.  We arrived at Najwa at 3:30 with a moderate shamal wind & a white [[image of triangular object on water]] buoy 1 mile N.E. of our anchorage.  We anchored in a wide sandy area with a U shaped band of reef on either side and straight ahead of us.  We anchored in about 3 fath. of water with mud sand bottom.  Soon the Tarat came up with Jim along with 4 Arabs.  We set the 6 traps at Naywa, and then returned the Tarat made 15 3/4 R.P.M. towing the Palestine dead wgt. with the Palestine running the Tarat towed just barely 16 1/8 R.P.M. full speed.
[[end page]]

Transcription Notes:
botton page one: cubé root