44 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



somewhat smaller in number, represents in reality a greater degree 

 of success, inasmuch as 10,500,000 young fish were reared to the 

 fingerling stage before liberating, whereas no work of this character 

 was accomplished in 1911. It is believed the usefulness of the Afog- 

 nak station may be greatl}" extended by estabhshmg egg-collecting 

 fields on other streams on Afognak and adjacent islands, and it is 

 proposed to establish two such auxiliaries on Kodiak Island, at Eagle 

 Harbor and Uganak Lake, within the next year. 



The usual shad operations conducted by the superintendent of the 

 Clackamas station resulted in the liberation of 2,500,000 fry near 

 the falls in the Willamette River. Shad are said to be increasing in 

 the Columbia River to such an extent that the packers are planning 

 increased facilities for placing them on the market. 



CONDITIONS ON THE GREAT LAKES. 



The prospects for the whitefish work on Lake Erie early in the 

 season were exceedingly bright. In the latter part of October, when 

 the weather was stiU too warm to permit of penning them, a suffi- 

 cient number of partially ripe fish were in evidence to have filled the 

 Put-in Bay, Ohio, station with eggs, but a little later, when the tem- 

 perature had fallen to a suitable point, heavy offshore winds set in, 

 and with short intermissions prevailed to the end of the spawning 

 season, driving the fi.sh from the reefs into the deeper inaccessible 

 waters and keeping them there until the fishermen's nets had been 

 removed for the winter. The result was the collection of only 

 82,280,000 eggs, the smallest number since 1893. On the other hand, 

 the catch of whitefish by commercial fishermen in the western end 

 of Lake Erie was the largest in years, the bulk of the catch, however, 

 occurring before the beginning and after the close of the spawming 

 season, when the heavy winds had subsided. 



In conjunction with the whitefish work, 18,000,000 eggs of the cisco 

 were obtained on the spawning grounds in the vicinity of Cleveland. 

 This is an especially fruitful field for eggs of the cisco, and were it not 

 for the extremely short spawning season, which seldom exceeds 10 

 days in Lake Erie, it is believed the collections of eggs of this species 

 would have exceeded 50,000,000. 



The cold, backward sprmg and the presence of large fields of 

 floating ice in Lake Erie made it impossible for the fishermen to 

 set their nets in time for the commencement of the spawning of 

 the pike perch, and before the majority of the nets could be mstalled 

 the season was nearly over. This condition, coupled with the strong 

 winds prevailing the greater part of the spring, caused the egg col- 

 lections of pike perch for the Put-in Bay station to fall far below the 

 average of recent years, resulting in a corresponding decrease m the 

 output. 



