Thus the history of Federal researches on the Great Lakes has 

 been one of loosely related projects. Only a glance at the record 

 of funds is needed (table 1) to understand how futile it would have 

 been to attempt continuing observations on even a small segment of 

 these extensive and scattered fisheries. Yet for all the discon- 

 tinuity and lack of a sustained central program^ Great Lakes Fishery 

 Investigations has not been ineffective. Not only were satisfactory 

 solutions found to the several practical problems that attracted 

 outside suoport to the individual projects; in addition, staff mem- 

 bers have published many and varied reports which, as an examination 

 of the bibliography given later in this article will prove, have made 

 available a large store of information on the Great Lakes fisheries. 

 These past studies have provided much of the foundation for an ef- 

 fective inquiry into the factors that control the productivity of 

 the Great Lakes. 



The Great Lakes research program , 1927 - ^2 



The research program of the Fish and Wildlife Service on the 

 Great Lakes divides itself conveniently into three distinct periods: 

 the early years^ 1927-32, of intensive field work on a variety of 

 projects; an intermediate period, 1933-U75 of stringently reduced 

 budgets; and the present era in which the primary concern is research 

 on methods for the control of the sea lamprey and for the rehabilita- 

 tion of grievously damaged fisheries. The transition from the first 

 to the second period was as abrupt as it was fatal to all plans for 

 sustained observations on the fisheries. The change to the third 

 period was more gradual in that some special funds were available for 

 the study of the sea lamprey in fiscal years 19 U8 and 19 U9, although 

 budgets adequate for effective research on that parasite first came 

 near the middle of fiscal year 19^0. 



Years of intensive field work , 1927-32 ,— The troublesome situation 

 in Lake Erie that brought about the establishment of Great Lakes Fish- 

 ery Investigations was also the first to receive the attention of the 

 newly oi'ganized staff. Most of the problems existing then were of long 

 standing. For years the industry on Lake Erie had been suffering de- 

 creasing returns in the face of increasing fishing pressvjre; for years 

 operators of gill nets and trap nets, the two principal types of gear, 

 literally had been at one another's throats, each group accusing the 

 other of viciously destructive fishing practices and joining their 

 voices only in a common denunciation of pollution as a major cause of 

 the decline in the abundance of fish. Urgently as these matters needed 

 attention, it still required the complete collapse ( in 1925 and subse- 

 quent yeai-s) of the lake's most productive fishery, that for the cisco, 

 to stjjiTulate action for a comprehensive research project. 



The Lake Erie project was started in 1927, carried on intensively 

 in 1928 and 1929s and continued on a reduced scale through the spring 

 of 1931, This ■undertaking was a cooperative venture toward which the 



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