Nandarivatu's

100,000

Fish Eggs

By R. A. Lever

The successful introduction of trout into the East African highlands was the inspira tion, just over 20 years ago, of an attempt to do the same thing in the interior of Fiji. rHE decision to import the trout was made by the departmental head then responsible for Fijian isheries, although a senior administrative officer, who lad just arrived from Tanganyika, was against the pro ect because he believed Fiji’s temperatures were too ligh.

Batches of trout ova, numbering 100,000, were im >orted from New Zealand in muslin bags placed on ice ind taken by car up to the hill station chosen for their latching and release.

This was a place called Nandarivatu (meaning “the tone fish” in Fijian), a few miles inland from the lorthern coast of Viti Levu.

A Fijian was detached from the staff of the writer’s aboratory to look after the eggs in the small hatchery milt near a large timber company’s site. The hatchery yas about 2,000 ft up.

On the only occasion that I was able to visit the spot, n June, 1941, the temperature of the water at a depth if two feet was 66 degrees Fahrenheit, Other Fish to Fry According to data from official sources in Tanganyika, he temperature of their trout streams is only 58 deg, o 65 deg. Fahr. so that the Fijian water was, as an icipated, too high.

Despite careful and conscientious work by the Fijian, he young fish did not thrive and failed to become stablished. Six months later, as a result of the apanese raid on Pearl Harbour, people in Fiji had other hings to concern themselves with than fish ova, and he matter has not, I believe, been followed up since.

In Malaya, in 1935, trout were successfully liberated ti the Cameron Highlands at nearly twice the elevation •f the Fijian experiment, but, unfortunately, they failed o breed.

Perhaps readers who are familiar with liberations of iva in Ceylon and elsewhere in the tropics might offer ome comments as to the possibilities of trout acclimat sation in such places as Borneo, Sumatra or Mada gascar. All of these places appear to have the necessary levation, with water at a low enough temperature, for rout fry.

The trout ova released at Nandarivatu, on the northern coast of the Fijian island of Viti Leva in 1940, were received from New Zealand as shown in the top picture. Below is a view of Nandarivatu. — Photo: R. A. Lever.