Actual landings averaged 5,197 lb per trip, or 

 about two-thirds of the total catch. This figure 

 compares favorably with my estimate of 5,419 lb 

 landed per trip, or 699'- of the catch. Discarded 

 fish averaged 2,441 lb per trip or Sl'~'r of the 

 catch and consisted of 2,057 lb of low-value fish- 

 es and 384 lb of undersized fish of high or me- 

 dium value. 



Low-value species accounted for 54% of the 

 estimated total catch (by weight), 36% of the 

 landed catch (as compared with my estimate of 

 40%), and 84 ""r of the discarded fish. Fresh- 

 water drum were dominant in both the total 

 catch and the discarded portion. Medium-value 

 fish accounted for about 46% of the estimated 

 total catch, 59% of the estimated weight of 

 landed fish, and 15% of the discards. Yellow 

 perch, second in abundance among individual 

 species in the estimated total catch, ranked first 

 in the landed catch. White bass were also sig- 

 nificant in the total and in the landed catch. 

 High-value species (walleye) accounted for only 

 0.7% of the total catch, and for this same per- 

 centage of landings and discards. 



The sale value of the catch from a day's lift 

 of trap nets averaged $547, based on jirevailing 

 prices paid at the time the catches were made. 

 At 2^ per pound, the potential worth of the dis- 

 carded catch averaged $41 per day. Athough 

 little interest has been shown among trap net- 

 ters in increasing the landings of species that 

 are worth only 2 or Sf* per pound, conversations 

 with these fishermen indicated that they would 

 willingly land the low-value fishes for 5 to 7'' 

 per pound minimum. Even though sizable 

 quantities of the low-value fishes are usually 

 available, it is unlikely that the trap netters will 

 increase their landings under existing condi- 

 tions. 



POTENTIAL CATCHES 



The commercial yield of high- and medium- 

 value s]3ecies could not have been increased in 

 1969 without an increase in fishing effort, since 

 all fish of legal size were kept. An increase in 

 production could have been realized only by keep- 

 ing the discarded low-value fishes. In estimating 

 the potential harvest of the unused fish in west- 

 ern Lake Erie by haul seines and trap nets in 

 1969, I assumed that the relation between the 



landed and discarded fish in the observed catch- 

 es was generally characteristic of the total U.S. 

 fishery for the western basin. 



Estimates of the landed and the discarded fish 

 from the catches of the 14 seine hauls and 226 

 trap net lifts were used to determine the poten- 

 tial commercial harvest in the western basin in 

 1969. A total of about 188,000 pounds of fish 

 were taken in the seine hauls and trap net lifts 

 observed. The projected catch was computed 

 for each species (except gizzard shad and gold- 

 fish — see below) by first determining a numer- 

 ical factor from the ratio of landed fish to the 

 total catch in the hauls and lifts observed. The 

 1969 commercial production for each species was 

 then multiplied by its corresponding factor to 

 give the projected production for that partic- 

 ular species. For example, since 13,712 of the 

 39,408 lb of freshwater drum taken by trap nets 

 were discarded (Table 5), the estimated landed 

 catch of 25,696 lb of freshwater drum would 

 have been increased 1.534 times if the discards 

 had been kept. In turn, the U.S. commercial 

 catch of 277,945 lb of freshwater drum by trap 

 nets from the western basin in 1969 was project- 

 ed (X 1.534) to a production of 426,368 lb 

 (Table 6). 



Computations for two species — gizzard shad 

 and goldfish — differed from that ' described 

 above. Gizzard shad were not kept by haul 

 seiners and neither gizzard shad nor goldfish by 

 trap net fishermen. To compute the catches of 

 these species, I determined the ratios of discard- 

 ed weight of both species to the landed catch of 

 all low-value species in the hauls and lifts ob- 

 served (Tables 4 and 5). The 1969 commercial 

 yield for all low-value species was then mul- 

 tiplied by the percentages of discarded specimens 

 of both species to estimate their potential yield 

 by the designated gear. For example, over 2,640 

 lb of gizzard shad were caught and released from 

 the observed seine hauls — or about 6% of the 

 46,259 lb of low-value species that were landed. 

 This percentage, multiplied by the 4,589,825 lb 

 of commercially produced low-value fishes in 

 1969, provided a potential yield of 261,941 lb of 

 gizzard shad that could have been harvested by 

 haul seines in 1969. This method was also used 

 to determine the potential yield of gizzard shad 

 and goldfish in trap nets in 1969. Incidental 

 catches of the miscellaneous low-value species 



