A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ERIE=NIAQARA SYSTEM 



Supplemental to the Eighteenth Annual Report, 1928 



Introduction 



By E:k[:MELixE Moore 

 Investigator in Fish Culture, in Charge of Survey 



The report of the biological survey submitted herewith incor- 

 porates a series of papers bearing on the subject of the fisheries 

 in the Erie-Niagara system. Three major lines of inquiry were 

 pursued — the study of the deeper water at the eastern end of Lake 

 Erie with special emphasis on factors limiting productivity ; the 

 investigation of the general shore conditions, including a study of 

 the effects of pollution resulting from the highly industrialized 

 centers on or near the water front ; and an evaluation of the tribu- 

 tary^ streams and their headwaters in relation to a stocking policy. 



The recent disastrous slump in the whitefish and herring indus- 

 try in Lake Erie led Commissioner Alexander Macdonald to secure 

 an adequate appropriation from the Conservation Fund in order 

 that one subdivision of the survey might be conducted as a joint 

 effort with the Federal Bureau of Fisheries following plans which 

 developed at a conference called by the United States Fisheries 

 Commissioner, Henry O'Malley, in February at Cleveland, Ohio. 

 The Federal Bureau agreed upon a plan of cooperation which 

 would detail the government boat ''Shearwater" to the uses of 

 the NcAv York State Conservation Department for its Erie-Niagara 

 survey. Subsequently the Province of Ontario detailed its repre- 

 sentative to join the survey staff. 



This initial effort in analyzing the Lake Erie problem should be 

 the forerunner of more effective coordination of all agencies inter- 

 ested in the Great Lakes fishery. 



Area of Survey. — The coverage included in the Erie-Niagara 

 survey is shown in the accompanying map. In respect of the fish- 

 eries, the area presents aspects of widely varying interest and 

 importance, the more significant and striking of which are briefly 

 these : the Lake Erie shore line of approximately 70 miles stretch- 

 ing from the Pennsylvania border to Buffalo represents a ''fishing 

 outlook" of great economic interest and of primary concern to the 

 commercial fishermen. In the frontage of 37 miles of the Niagara 

 river lies another major interest in that the upper and lower 

 stretches of the river represent adjuncts of Lakes Erie and Ontario 

 as sources for the replenishment of the lake supply. The tributaries 

 and headwaters of the waterslied spread over six counties — Erie 



