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5.

5. [[underlined]] Boats and Vessels [[/uderlined]]

The largest native fishing craft is about 40 feet in length, beam 10 feet, draft 3 feet, has a kerosene diesel engine and is called a launch both by natives and Americans.  Such a boat is used for bringing fish from the fishing grounds to the fish pier at Ras Tanura.  The deck is uncovered and there is no refrigeration. The boat itself is a native built dhow of the same size as the larger type of sailing craft known as the "jalboot".  The next largest native fishing craft is propelled by sail and is the "jalboot" about 30 feet in length with a lateen rig sail.  Smaller boats 18 feet to 20 feet in length are most common and are propelled by sail and or oars.  The size of the crew varies depending on the type of fishing.  One or 2 men is the minimum up to 8 or 10 for ordinary fishing and 60 or more men for pearl diving.  The smaller boats are more pointed at both bow and stern and are seaworthy though roughly and heavily built.  All boats are unpainted save for occasional coatings of raw fish oil and are pieced together like jigsaw puzzles.

6. [[underlined]] Fishing Gear [[/underlined]]

[[/underlined]] Hand lines [[/underlined]] are made of untreated cotton line of poor grade.  Hooks are of the English type without eyes and are locally purchased at Bahrain Island.  Leads are home made and crude.

[[underlined]] Trolling gear [[/underlined]] consists of poor grade untreated cotton line home made lead lures of red and dirt-grey rags and a little shredded rope tied on a single hook, without swivels.

[[underlined]] Fish traps [[/underlined]] ("gerugir") are made oval shaped with flat bottoms, funnels at each end and averaging 2 feet in length by 15 inches in height to 4 feet in length and 3 feet in height.  They are woven of straight wire crossed in such a way as to make effective meshes.  These traps are effective for catching all kinds of bottom fishes and account for the greatest bulk of fish caught by natives.  Bait is used either chopped seaweed, or chopped crabs mixed in clay balls.

[[underlined]] Stake traps [[/underlined]] are made of the center stems of palm leaves tied closely together and stuck in the sand or mud to make stationary traps of considerable size.  The fish are removed from the trap-end with a hand scoop net at low tide.  The fish enter the trap mostly at night on the high tide.

[[underlined]] Floating net traps [[/underlined]] are made out of thin cotton twine.  The lead net runs perpendicularly from the shore into a rectangular shaped trap.

[[underlined]] Drag seines [[/underlined]] are made of cotton thread - 250 feet in length or more, 8 to 12 feet in depth with 2-inch stretched mesh and are operated by about 8 men on sandy shores.  They use butt ends of the center stem of palm leaves for floats and pieces of coral rock for weights.

[[underlined]] Throw or cast nets [[/underlined]]- Throw or cast nets made of thin cotton thread are used by fisherman at Qatif on Tarut bay.  Mullet, small porgies, and sardines are caught in this way.