the Minnesota production throws considerable 

 doubt on the assumed causal relation between 

 plantings of Red LaKes fry and commercial catch 

 in Lake Superior. However, in more recent 

 years immediately prior to 1938 there were 

 more grounds for the belief that artificial propa - 

 gation of whitefish was beneficial to the Red Lakes 

 fisheries. If published reports describe the 

 situation accurately, then the droughts or low 

 water levels of several years (1931-1936) must 

 have had a devastating effect on whitefish eggs 

 deposited naturally in the lakes. The "Second 

 Biennial Report, Fiscal Years 1933-1934"(1934) 

 of the Minnesota Department of Conservation 

 stated (p. 164): "To those who have had occasion 

 to study the real effects of the drouth however, 

 the situation is more serious. To cite one in- 

 stMice, the water levels of Red Lake have receded 

 to a point where the natural spawning beds of the 

 whitefish are exposed to the open air and it is 

 extremely doubtful if any natural reproduction 

 will take place until the lake level has again at- 

 tained its normal elevation. This is a serious 

 matter because the whitefish of Red Lake is justly 

 considered the most valuable food fish native to 

 our waters. The "Third Biennial Report, Fiscal 

 Years 1935-1936"(1936) reiterates the statement 

 that the whitefish spawning beds "are all exposed" 

 and "Namrally, if the eggs are deposited on 

 these old beds, natural production is practically 

 nothing, as the beds will be frozen solid through- 

 out the winter . ' (p. 152). Under such conditions 

 it is conceivable that artificial propagation might 

 have been a factor in maintaining the whitefish of 

 the Red Lakes . 



Surber (1920) also reported that in 1918 

 burbot (Lota maculosa) were found on the white- 

 fish spawning grounds with their stomachs filled 

 with whitefish eggs. It is not believed, however, 

 that burbot were numerous enough to have been a 

 factor in the depletion of whitefish. 



An incomplete record of whitefish eggs 

 collected from the Red Lakes in the fall of various 

 years over the period 1919-1934, appears in 

 table 26 . Althou^ eggs were collected every 

 year during this period, data were available to us 

 for only 6 years. The computation of numbers of 

 whitefish eggs collected was based on the accepted 

 count of 47,000 eggs per quart. Only fragmentary 

 data were available on the number of whitefish 



eggs shipped by the Redby hatchery crew to other 

 hatcheries for incubation. Table 26 also con- 

 tains data on the number of whitefish fry produced 

 at Redby and planted in the Red Lakes. Since the 

 published biennial reports of the Minnesota De- 

 partment of Conservation indicate that practically 

 all of the whitefish fry distributed by the State 

 originated from the Red Lakes, data have been 

 Included showing the total number of whitefish 

 fry produced by the State and the percentage of 

 each yearly total produced at Redby and planted 

 in the Red Lakes. Percentages of the number of 

 fry planted in these lakes in the total number of 

 eggs collected and in the number of fry produced 

 at Redby are shown also . 



Available records suggest an average of 

 at least 45,586,000 whitefish eggs were collected 

 annually from the Red Lakes from 1919 to 1938. 

 Before the fall of 1924 and establishment of the 

 Redby hatchery, all the eggs were shipped from 

 the Red Lakes for incubation. Computations 

 based on the scanty data for the years 1933-1935, 

 indicate that on the average about 17 percent of 

 the eggs collected by the Redby hatchery was 

 shipped to other state hatcheries. The eggs re- 

 tained at Redby yielded an average annual 

 production of 37,411,064 whitefish fry, which 

 represented a survival of about 62 percent as 

 determined from the 1933-1935 data. This per- 

 centage hatch compares favorably with that 

 obtained by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 and the State of Michigan (60-65 percent) for the 

 same species. The number of whitefish fry pro- 

 duced at Redby represented two-thirds of the 

 State's output of whitefish fry during 1927-1936. 

 From 1921-1936, the State produced an average 

 annual yield of 35,921,000 whitefish fry, and dur- 

 ing 1921-1938 the State distributed approximately 

 550 million whitefish fry, nearly all, if not all, 

 of which presumably came from the Red Lakes. 

 Since 1920 a total of more than 461 million white- 

 fish fry, or an average of 27,084,000 fry per year, 

 was planted in the Red Lakes. This number 

 represented roughly 43 percent of the eggs col- 

 lected, 72 percent of the total production of 

 whitefish fry in the State, and 97 percent of the 

 fry produced at the Redby hatchery. Whitefish 

 fry planted in the Red Lakes, excluding 1921, 

 varied from 4,385,000 in 1925 to 59,210,000 in 

 1929. About 82 percent of the fry was planted in 

 Lower Red Lake and 18 percent in Upper Red Lake . 



58 



