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(a)
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1890
1895
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
Year
(b)
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
1890
1895
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
Year
Figure 5.5 (a) Weights of pearl-shell harvested in Queensland, 1890-1940; (b) Values of
pearl-shell harvested in Queensland, 1890-1940. Source: Compiled from data provided in
Saville-Kent (1890a, p730; NADC, 1946, p44)
Serventy (1955, p75), writing in 1955, reported that both the value of pearl-
shell and the cost of labour and transport in the industry fluctuated considerably;
as a result, the high profitability of pearl-shelling before the First World War had
decreased and manufacturers had turned increasingly to synthetic materials as
substitutes for pearl-shell . 2 L ike the bêche-de-mer industry, an accurate evaluation
of the overall impact of the fishery on the resource is hindered by a lack of
records for the early period of harvesting: few documentary records illuminate
the period before the earliest depletion of pearl-shell was reported. Nevertheless,
the evidence presented above suggests that the activities of pearl-shellers were
widespread in the Great Barrier Reef, and that intense depletion of pearl-shell
beds took place during the period in which that industry operated. Like the
bêche-de-mer fishery, and in spite of regulatory measures, the pearl-shell industry
exhausted the marine resources on which it was based.
 
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