18 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



sideration when the preservation of fish life for future generations is to be provided 

 for. It certainly is high time that the different States bordering- on the Great Lakes 

 should enact laws providing a close season at least for the great commercial tish — 

 the salmonidse. In no other way can the inevitable be long delayed. Although 

 artificial culture and planting of fry is one of the greatest works of the age, the restock- 

 ing of these depleted waters can not be accomplished by these alone. 



The U. S. Fish Commission in one of its recent valuable reports states that — 

 Iu no other country in the world are there fewer regulations anil restrictions in regard to the 

 fisheries of the country, yet it would .seem that, in view of the condition of the fisheries, some decided 

 restrictions and regulations should be enforced if the industry is not to be abolished. 



The same report says: 



There is, however, a plea for the interference of the Government in certain cases, in regard to 

 the fisheries that belong to the rivers or are near the shore, and, thereby, more specially related to the 

 adjacent Commonwealth. Nearly all civilized nations have looked with more or less care after their 

 interior or river fisheries and quite a number of the States of the American Union have their own 

 special enactments on this subject. 



This is true of the States which border on the Great Lakes, but as regards the fish 

 which form the staple of the great fisheries of the international waters — the salmonidse, 

 as the whitefish, salmon trout, and herring — they have little or no regulation or close 

 season, as will be seen from the following synopsis of the laws of those States : 



Wisconsin: No close season for salmon trout, whitefish or herring; and trout, pike, bass, and 

 maskinonge may be taken and sold during spawning season from any other waters than the 

 inland waters of the State. However, it is provided that whitefish, and salmon trout must 

 be stripped when taken and the spawn and milt mixed in a pail and the mixture thrown 

 overboard — a very inadequate provision. 



Minnesota: No close season for salmon trout, whitefish, or pike; close season for herring from 

 November 10 to December 10. 



Illinois: Though situated on Lake Michigan and not on international waters, this State has no 

 close season for the Great Lakes, but has a close season from July 1 to April 1, as regards seines 

 for waters wholly within its boundaries. 



Ohio: Close season from June 15 to September 15, but none for whitefish or trout, albeit they do 

 not allow nets to be placed ou the reefs in Lake Erie. 



Pennsylvania: Close season for speckled trout and salmon from August 1 to April 1; also for 

 lake trout from October 1 to January 1, and for bass, pike, and pickerel between January 1 

 and June 1 ; but this does not apply to Lake Erie, although no netting whatever is allowed 

 withiu a mile and a half of the shore. 



New York : Close season for salmon trout, landlocked salmon, and lake trout in inland waters 

 from October 1 to March 1; also a close season for black bass, Oswego bass, maskinonge, 

 and pickerel from January 1 to July 1. Besides other special laws for special waters, it 

 will be observed that there is no close season established for either whitefish, salmon trout, 

 or herring in Lake Erie. 



Michigan : Close season for inland waters for the salmonidse from September 1 to May 1, but no 

 close season for whitefish, salmon trout, or herring in the Great Lakes. 



'Thus it will be seen that, while there are State laws regulating fishery interests 

 of inland waters, none of them, with one or two exceptions, have any restrictions or 

 regulations whatever pertaining to the great international waters which lave their 

 shores and furnish so important an article of commerce. The fish are left to shift for 

 themselves and to be at the mercy of large moneyed fishing companies, whose only 

 interest and object is, of course, to make all the money they can out of the industry, 

 regardless of the length of time it may last or of the interests of posterity. Now, if 

 we turn to the country bounding these great lakes on the north and examine its laws 



