The Fish Tale Chapter Notes - Mathematics for Class 5: NCERT

Fishes

Fishes are in different shapes and sizes. Squares and triangles can be used to draw a fish.

There are fish designs around us — on cloth, in paintings, on mats, etc.

Fishes can have very different sizes:
The smallest fish is about 1 cm long. The biggest fish is the whale shark. It is actually not a whale but is a big, big fish. One whale shark was as long as 18 m. Its weight is about 16000 kg.

“Schools” of Fish:- Fish like to swim together in the sea in big groups called “schools” of fish. In their school they feel safe from the bigger fish.

To scare away the bigger fish, some small fish drink up a lot of water, swell up and look big

Different shapes can be used to make drawings of fish:

Fishermen in their Boats

Fishermen in their boats, going up and down with the waves to catch fish. They start their trip when it is still dark. Some go on a simple boat made from logs of wood tied together. If the sea is rough, with very high tides and a strong wind, then these fishermen have a very difficult time.

• These log boats do not go very far. If the wind is helpful, they travel about 4km in one hour.
• Fishermen can feel the wind and look at the sun to find out which way to go.

Out on the sea, fishermen look for a place where they hope to find a good catch of fish. There they spread their nets. They will have to wait for many hours for the fish to come into their nets.

• Some boats have motors and go further into the sea. Since they go far out they can catch more fish.
• These boats travel faster, at the speed of about 20 km in one hour.

Different Types of Boats

Some very big machine boats (trawlers) are also used by fishermen.

• They go far out and put their big nets deep in the sea. This way they collect a whole lot of fish, leaving very few near the sea shore. They also stay out on the sea for many days.
• These big machine boats also catch the small baby fish, which have yet to grow up.

Fishermen in the smaller boats always let the baby fish pass through their nets to go back into the sea. They choose a net size in such a way that only the grown up fish are caught.

For hundreds of years fishermen have cared for the sea and its fishes, and fished only a little to eat and sell. They say that if trawlers catch thousands of kilograms of fish everyday, there will be no fish left in the sea!

Which Boat Gets How Much?

• There are about two lakh boats in our country. Half of them are without a motor.
• About one fourth of the boats with a motor are big machine boats.
• In all there are about one hundred lakh fish workers — who catch fish, clean and sell them, make and repair nets and boats, etc. We also have a name for this big number – ‘one hundred lakh’ is called a crore.

The Fish Market

Mini— Come here! Come here! Take sardines at Rs 40 a kg.

Gracy — Never so cheap! Get sword-fish for Rs 60 a kg.
Floramma sells prawns for Rs 150 a kg.
Karuthamma sells squid for Rs 50 a kg.
Look, Fazila can hardly carry this big kingfish! She says, This fish weighs 8kg. I will sell the whole for Rs 1200.

Women's  “MEENKAR BANK”

This is a bank made by twenty fisher women. Each one of them saves Rs 25 every month and puts it in the bank. If someone needs money to buy net, boat etc. they take loan from the bank and later return it with interest.

The women of Meenkar Bank also want to start a factory to dry fish. The Panchayat has given them some land for that. Over the years they have saved Rs 74,000.

Example:
The table for the cost of each item and the number of items they want to buy for the factory is given below.

(a) Total cost to set up the factory ?

(b) When fresh fish Is dried, it becomes l /3 its weight. In one month they plan to dry 6000 kg of fresh fish. How much dried fish will they get In a month?

Ans:

(a) Total cost to set up the factory = Rs 3000 + Rs 40000 + Rs 4000 + Rs 6000 + Rs 1500 = Rs 54,500
(b) Dried fish they will get in a month = 6000 kg /3 = 2000 kg