lamprey and the implementation of a central 

 program . The transition from the first to the 

 second period was as abrupt as it was fatal to 

 all plans for sustained observations on the fish- 

 eries. The change to the third period was more 

 gradual in that some special funds were avail- 

 able for the study of the sea lamprey in fiscal 

 years 1948 and 1949, although budgets adequate 

 for effective research on that parasite first 

 came near the middle of fiscal year 1950. 



Years of Extensive Field Work, 1927-32 



The troublesome situation in Lake Erie 

 that brought about the establishment of Great 

 Lakes Fishery Investigations was also the first 

 to receive the attention of the newly organized 

 staff. Most of the problems existing then were 

 of long standing. For years the industry on 

 Lake Erie had been suffering decreasing returns 

 in the face of increasing fishing pressure; 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 prac- 

 tices 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 re- 

 quired the complete collapse (in 1925 and sub- 

 sequent years) of the lake's most productive 

 fishery, that for the cisco, to stimulate action 

 for a comprehensive research project. 



The Lake Erie project was started in 

 1927, carried on intensively in 1928 and 1929, 

 and continued on a reduced scale through the 

 spring of 1931 . This undertaking was a cooper- 

 ative venture toward which the following 

 organizations contributed facilities, funds, and 

 personnel: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 

 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; Ohio Division 

 of Conservation; New York Conservation Depart- 

 ment; Ontario Game and Fisheries Department; 

 Health Department; City of Buffalo; Buffalo 

 Society of Natural Sciences. Through the col- 

 laboration of these several agencies a concerted 

 attack was possible on such problems as factors 

 of abundance and distribution of fish, regulation 

 and management of fisheries, and pollution in 

 relation to fisheries and municipal water sup- 

 plies. 



Although the Service made a limnological 

 survey of eastern Lake Erie possible by supply- 

 ing the services of the research vessel Shear - 

 water, members of the Great Lakes staff did not 

 participate actively in the scientific activities 

 of that survey. Rather, the Great Lakes staff 

 concentrated on limnological studies directed 

 toward an appraisal of the effects of pollution 

 in the western end of Lake Erie and on studies 

 of "savings gear", the first investigations of 

 this type known to have been carried out in North 

 America. The "hybrid" trap net designed to re- 

 duce the capture and handling of undersized fish 

 which was recommended as a result of these 

 studies has long since become a standard gear. 

 In fact, many fishermen who at first opposed 

 the recommendations as radical and impractical 

 later voluntarily exceeded the original specifica- 

 tions in providing for the release of small fish. 

 During the course of the field operations, staff 

 members seized upon the occasion to amass 

 large amounts of biological materials and data 

 that were later to form the basis for a number 

 of publications. These materials served also 

 as the principal basis for doctoral dissertations 

 at the University of Michigan by Deason on the 

 morphometry and growth of pikeperches, and by 

 Jobes on the growth of yellow perch. Nor has 

 the store even yet been fully exhausted. 



All of the several field projects carried 

 out in the late 1920's and early 1930's were 

 similar to the Lake Erie investigations in that: 

 they were initiated to obtain information on im - 

 mediately pressing problems; support from other 

 agencies through allocation of funds, assignments 

 of personnel, or supply of equipment made them 

 possible or permitted operation on a far more 

 effective scale than the relatively modest Service 

 budget would have allowed; they provided the op- 

 portunity for the collection of biological materials 

 and data. Brief comments on these projects are 

 given in the following paragraphs. 



The experimental studies on pound-net 

 meshes in Saginaw Bay (1928-30), requested 

 and supported by the State of Michigan, were 

 carried out in an attempt to determine a single 

 mesh size that might prove suitable for all im- 

 pounding nets in that region and in other waters 

 with similar fishing conditions. Previously, 

 three minimum legal mesh sizes had been stipu- 

 lated according to the species of fish . Inasmuch 



