WHITEFISH FISHERY OF LAKES HURON AND MICHIGAN 



335 



In 1929, the first year for which detailed statistics are available, the catch of whitefish 

 (4,288,000 pounds) was greater than that of any previous year, except 1889, for which 

 there are usable records (table 1). The increase over the take for 1928 was 1,332,000 

 pounds (table 13). A further rise of 525,000 pounds in 1930 brought the yield of 

 whitefish in Lake Michigan to the peak of 4,813,000 pounds. 



Whitefish production declined continually throughout the next 6 years. The de- 

 creases were large (average of 656,000 pounds per year). In two years (1931 and 1933) 

 the drop in catch amounted to roughly a million pounds. In three years (1932, 1935, 

 and 1936) the decreases were approximately a half million pounds. The smallest drop 

 in production (304,000 pounds) in the 6-year period occurred in 1934. 



The 1931-1936 decline in catch was followed by increases in 1937 (70,000 pounds) 

 and 1938 (170,000 pounds). A new drop of 277,000 pounds in 1939 carried the yield 

 to a level that was only a little above the lowest recorded for any previous year 

 (806,000 in 1920). 



Great as the decline in production was in Lake Michigan, the yield in 1939 amounted 

 to 17.5 percent of the 1930 maximum as compared with a 1939 catch in Lake Huron 

 that was only 6.2 percent of the 1931 peak in that lake. 



The records of the production of whitefish in deep trap nets (tables 13 and 14) con- 

 firm the earlier statement that the gear failed by far to become as important in Lake 

 Michigan as in Lake Huron. In Lake Michigan the deep trap net accounted for only 

 25.7 percent of the total catch in 1932, the year of its greatest success. This percentage 

 was less than that of pound nets (26.7 percent) and was far below the percentage for 

 gill nets (46.9 percent). In fact, the total quantity of whitefish taken by deep trap nets 

 in Lake Michigan in their 6 years of operation (1930-1935) was less than the amount 

 taken by the same gear in Lake Huron in each of the single years, 1932 and 1933. The 

 gill net was the most important gear for the capture of whitefish throughout the 11-year 

 period and accounted for more than 50 percent of the total yield in 9 years (average of 

 54.4 percent for 1929-1939). With equal consistency the pound net held second rank, 

 and accounted for 35.8 percent of the 1929-1939 take. 



Table 14. — Production of whitefish in pounds in deep trap nets in Lake Michigan, 1930-1935 (use of deep 



trap nets illegal after July 1, 1935) 

 [In parentheses, the doep-trap-nct production expressed as a percentage of the total whitefish production] 



