WHITEFISH FISHERY OF LAKES HURON AND MICHIGAN 



385 



APPENDIX C 



INVESTIGATION OF POUND NETS AND DEEP TRAP NETS IN THE 

 WISCONSIN WATERS OF LAKE MICHIGAN, 1931 42 



The brief investigation of the pound-net and deep-t rap-net fisheries of the Door 

 peninsula was conducted for the specific purpose of determining the validity of the 

 strenuous complaints of commercial fishermen against the use of the deep trap net. 

 The objections against the deep trap net as a dangerously efficient gear, as a source of 

 destruction to young fish, and as a usurper of pound-net grounds were in general the 

 same as those put forward by Michigan fishermen, and, consequently, need not be 

 outlined in detail here. (See p. 298.) The procedure of the investigation involved 

 observations of the lifting of pound nets and deep trap nets, interviews with operators 

 of both types of nets (including a public hearing attended by more than 250 fisher- 

 men at Fish Creek, July 10, 1931), and the compilation of statistics on (1) the pro- 

 duction of whitefish in the Wisconsin waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, 

 beginning in 1889, and (2) the production of whitefish and the catch per lift in pound 

 nets and deep trap nets of the Door peninsula, 1930-1931. 



PRODUCTION OF WHITEFISH IN THE GREEN BAY AND LAKE 

 MICHIGAN WATERS OF WISCONSIN, 1889-1939 



The data on whitefish production in the State of Wisconsin waters of Green Bay 

 and Lake Michigan (table 49) were compiled from original records in the files of the 

 Wisconsin Conservation Department. 43 



Table 49. — Production of whitefish in pounds in Green Bay and Luke Michigan, 1SS9-19.H) 



[Compiled from State records at Madison. Wis.] 



Green Bay. — Whitefish production was large in the early and middle nineties, but 

 there was a sharp drop in the catch at about the turn of the century. Production 

 remained rather consistently at a low level over the years, 1909-1923; only two years 

 11912 and 1921) of this period had yields in excess of 100,000 pounds. Beginning in 

 1924 the production of whitefish in Green Bay followed an irregular but definite upward 

 trend that culminated in a yield of a half million pounds in 1930. This catch (1930) 

 was the greatest since 1897 and was the third largest in the known history of the fishery. 



43 This section is condensed from the unpublished "Report to the Conservation Commission of the State of Wisconsin on the Investigation of Deep 

 Trap Nets, Conducted Jointly bv the State Pisheriea Department and the United States Bureau of Fisheries during the Period, July 6 to 11, 1931, 

 in the Waters of Door County, Wisconsin." The investigation was made by Dr. John Van Oosten of the United States Bureau of Fisheries (now the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service) and Messrs. B. O. Webster and Ira G. Smith of the Wisconsin Conservation Department. 



48 There are certain discrepancies between the data of table 49 of this appendix and those of table 1 of part I. These arise from the fact that 

 the former table has been based entirely on State of Wisconsin records fin order to have data for Green Bay and Lake Michigan separately) whereas 

 the records of whitefish production in Wisconsin waters in the latter table were obtained from several sources. (See appendix A.) 



