Biological Survey — Erie-Niagara Watershed '39 



II. A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE JOINT SURVEY 

 OF LAKE ERIE 



By Charles J. Fish 



Director Buffalo Museum of Science 



Introduction 



The present report contains a brief summary of some of the 

 results of a three months' survey of eastern Lake Erie, carried 

 on under the joint auspices of the United States Bureau of Fisher- 

 ies, the New York State Conservation Department, the Ontario 

 Department of Game and Fisheries, the Health Department of the 

 City of Buffalo, and the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. The 

 object of the investig'ation was to determine if possible the cause 

 or causes for the decline in the fisheries of the lake. 



The staff consisted of the following eleven investigators : 



Charles J. Fish, Field Director, Buffalo ]Museum of Science, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Richard Parmenter, Hydrographer, formerl}' with U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



Marie Poland Fish. Biologist, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, X, Y. 



Charles B. Wilson, Biologist, Westfield Normal School, Westfield, Mass. 



Paul R. Burkholder, Botanist, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Roger C. Williams, Chemist, City Health Department, Buffalo. N. Y. 



Andrew N. Zillig, Bacteriologist, City Health Department, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Albert E. Allin, Assistant Ichthyologist, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario 



Willis L. Tressler, Assistant, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 



Elizabeth L. Saunders, Assistant, Brown University, Providence, R. I. 



Vernon S. L. Pate, Assistant, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Program and Itinerary. — The program was designed Avith two 

 objects in view: first, a determination of the normal physical, 

 chemical, and biological conditions in the lake and the natural 

 requirements for successful production of fishes ; second, a careful 

 investigation to determine to what extent these natural require- 

 ments have been interfered with by man, to what extent the waters 

 have been made impossible for fish life, what areas of the bottom 

 have been rendered unfit for spawning, etc. By continuing the 

 results of these two lines of study it should be possible to determine 

 where the natural requirements have been most seriously affected 

 and how conditions may best be improved. 



In the area of 1701 square miles lying east of a line from the 

 New York-Pennsylvania boundary to Long Point, 23 stations 

 were located and plans made to visit each of these w^eekly from 

 June 15 to September 15, using the U. S. Fisheries steamer, Shear- 

 ivater, an 85 foot vessel of 95 gross tons. Before the arrival of the 

 larger vessel, during the interA-al between June 15 and July 26, 

 a modified program was carried out in the shallow area around 



