Catostomus commersoni; burbot, Lota lota; 

 trout-perch, Percopsis omiscomaycus; quillback, 

 Carpoides cyprinus; sauger; lake whitefish; black 

 bullhead, Ictalurus melas; lake herring; stonecat, 

 Noturus flavus; stoneroller, Campostoma 

 anomalum; sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus; 

 white crappie, Pomoxis annularis; buffalo, Ictiobus 

 sp.; yellow bullhead, Ictalurus natalis; smallmouth 

 bass, Micropterus dolomieui; pumpkinseed, 

 Lepomis gibbosus; rock bass, Ambloplites repestris; 

 longnose gar, Lepisosteus osseus; and logperch, 

 Percina caprodes. 



Only channel catfish and white bass were caught 

 in quantities with regularity. Though total poundage 

 of the above 25 miscellaneous species amounted to 

 5.9% of the total landings, the first six species ac- 

 counted for 5.2%; the remaining 19 species contrib- 

 uted only 0.7% of the total. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Exploia 

 tory Fishing and Gear Base at Ann Arbor, con- 

 ducted a 4-Cruise exploratory fishing survey 

 throughout the U.S. waters of Lake Erie between 

 April 1962 and October 1966 aboard the RV Kaho. 

 The objectives of this survey were to determine the 

 feasibility of using the bottom trawl in various areas 

 of Lake Erie and to determine the relative abun- 

 dance, location, and depth distribution of various 

 fish stocks within the lake. The following conclu- 

 sions may be drawn from the results of these ef- 

 forts: 



1. With few exceptions, the bottom of all U.S. 

 waters of the three basins of Lake Erie was 

 suitable for bottom trawling. 



2. Yellow perch and rainbow smelt were har- 

 vested with bottom trawl in amounts consid- 

 ered to be commercially significant. Alewife, 

 freshwater drum, carp, gizzard shad, channel 

 catfish, and white bass provided significant 

 supplements to total catches and collectively 

 contributed 34.6% to the total landings. 



3. Yellow perch was taken from the Western and 

 Central Basins in good quantities in 1962 and 

 1963, but during the 1966 survey, vellow perch 



was not taken from any basin by trawl in quan- 

 tities large enough to be considered commer- 

 cially significant. 



4. Alewife was not taken at all during Cruise 2 

 (April-May 1962) and catches were small dur- 

 ing Cruises 4 (September-October 1962) and 

 11 (May-June 1963). During Cruise 36 (Oc- 

 tober 1966), good catches — made in each of 

 the three basins — accounted for the largest 

 portion of the total catch. 



5. Rainbow smelt declined slightly between 1962 

 and 1966, but the species remained the second 

 most abundant (by weight) during each cruise. 

 Best concentrations of smelt were in the East- 

 ern Basin of the lake. 



6. Walleye, sauger, lake whitefish, and lake her- 

 ring, all once commercially abundant in Lake 

 Erie, were not located in commercially sig- 

 nificant amounts during this study. 



LITERATURE CITED 



CARR, I. A. 



1964. Lake Erie fisheries explorations, May-November 

 1960. Commer. Fish. Rev. 26(4):l-8. 

 GORDON. G., and K. D. BROUILLARD. 



1961. Great Lakes trawler conversion. U.S. Fish Wildl. 

 Serv., Fish. Leafl. 510, 15 p. 



H1LE, R. 



1962. Collection and analysis of commercial fisheries statis- 

 tics in the Great Lakes. Great Lakes Fish. Comm., Tech. 

 Rep. 5, 31 p. 



REIGLE, N. J., JR. 



1966. Trawl cod-end mesh size selectivity toward yellow 



perch in Lake Erie. Commer. Fish. Rev. 28(2): 1-5. 

 1969a. Bottom trawl explorations in Lake Superior. 



1963-1965. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Circ. 294, 25 p. 

 1969b. Bottom trawl explorations in southern Lake 

 Michigan, 1962-65. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Circ. 301, 

 35 p. 

 SAND. R. F.. and W. G. GORDON. 



1960. Exploratory fishing in Lake Erie, September 

 1958-November 1959. Commer. Fish. Rev. 22(6): 1-12. 

 U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, REGION 4. 



1966. Report on commercial fisheries resources of the Lake 

 Erie Basin. U.S. Fish. Wildl. Serv., Region 4. Ann 

 Arbor, Mich., Rep.. Aug. 1966, 113 p. 

 VAN METER, H. D., and M. B. TRAUTMAN. 



1970. An annotated list of the fishes of Lake Erie and its 

 tributary waters exclusive of the Detroit River. Ohio J. 

 Sci. 70:65-78. 



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