WHITEFISH FISHERY OF LAKES HURON AND MICHIGAN 



389 



WHITEFISH FISHERY OF LAKE HURON, 1940-1942 



The downward trend in the production of whitefish in the State of Michigan waters 

 of Lake Huron which got under way in 1933, and in 1939 had carried the annual yield 

 to less than half the previously recorded minimum (555,000 pounds in 1900), continued 

 through 1940-1942 (table 52 of this appendix — for further data on production see also 

 table 1 of part I, tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 of part II, and appendix B). The production of 

 95,000 pounds in 1942 amounted to only 4 percent of the 1929-1939 average for Lake 

 Huron, 45 and was only 2 percent of the 1931 maximum yield. Aside from unimportant 

 increases in H-2. H-3, and H-6 in 1942 the trend was downward in all districts during 

 the 3-year period. 



With the exception of H-l, where the production percentages ranged from 16 to 26, 

 the 1940-1942 yields of all districts amounted to only 7 percent (H-2 in 1940) or less of 

 the 1929-1939' mean. The 1942 production was nil in H-5, a district that yielded 

 1,676,000 pounds of whitefish in 1933. 



H-l accounted for 65.2 to 83.5 percent of the total whitefish yield of the lake in 

 1940-1942. The only other district that yielded as much as 10 percent of the total in 

 a single year was H-4 (1940 and 1941). The dominance of H-l in this limited fishery 

 was even more pronounced than in the early years, 1891-1908. 



The progressive decline in production in the years, 1940-1942, can be attributed to 

 a continued general decrease in fishing intensity (tables 53 and 54 — see tables 8 and 



Table 53. — Annual fluctuations in lite intensity of the fishery for whitefish in each district 



of Lake Huron, 1940-1943 



[Expressed as percentages of the average 1929 1939 intensity in the district] 



1 Inadequate data. 



2 No production. 



Table 54. — Annual fluctuations in the intensity of the whitefish fishery for all six districts of Lake Huron 

 combined (third row from bottom of right half of table) and distribution of each year's intensity among the districts 



[The average annual intensity for the entire lake, 1929-1939, is 100.0. In parentheses are the intensity values of the deep-trap-net fishery. 

 The value of one unit is 1/1.100 of the total expected catch of all districts, 1929-1939] 



1 Inadequate data. 

 1 No production. 



46 In this appendix as in part II references to "Lake Huron," "Lake Michigan," "the entire lake," or "the lake" should be understood to mean 

 the State of Michigan waters only, unless otherwise specified 



