324 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 
ing stock is being maintained at a sufficiently high level to provide 
adequate replacement for the toll taken by a large and intensive 
fishery. 
While no final conclusions as to the status of the pilchard stock can 
as yet be drawn, certain facts are evident. During the 1937-88 season, 
for the first time, the supply failed to equal the demand. During this 
season also the relatively low catch was accompanied by a decrease in 
the proportion of large fish in the catch. Without further informa- 
tion these facts do not constitute conclusive evidence of depletion but 
nevertheless suggest that the pilchard industry has reached the point 
where further expansion can result only in a rise of production cost. 
Great Lakes fishery investigations —Members of the staff continued 
their active cooperation with State and Federal officials and with sport 
and commercial fishermen, participating in meetings and conferences 
in which Great Lakes fishery problems were under consideration and 
assisting State conservation officials in the drafting of fishery regula- 
tions. One of the significant events of the year was the revision of the 
commercial fishery regulations for the State of Wisconsin waters of 
Lake Michigan, which, although at present the subject of litigation 
instituted by certain fishermen, constitutes another important step 
toward the attainment of uniform regulations for all waters of that 
State. An event of even more widespread interest and significance was 
the appointment, on February 29, 1940, of an International Board of 
Inquiry for the Great Lakes Fisheries. The Board will undertake a 
study of the fisheries and will submit recommendations as to means of 
conserving and developing the fishery resources, possibly by 
international agreement. 
Detailed information on fluctuations in the production and abun- 
dance of important commercial species and on the intensity of the 
fisheries of Lake Michigan has now been compiled for a 10-year period. 
These data have revealed, among other facts, a pronounced decline in 
the production and abundance of whitefish in Lake Huron in 1938, 
in which year the abundance index of this fish was only 29 percent of 
the 1929-34 average. Although recommendations had been made by 
the Bureau for the control of the deep trap-net fishery for whitefish, - 
no effective measures were adopted until the fishery had sustained 
damages that possibly are irreparable. 
Much of the attention of the staff was given to analyzing data pre- 
viously collected and to preparing reports on investigations that are 
now completed. Among these was a report on the fishery resources of 
the Red Lakes, which constitute one of the principal sources of liveli- 
hood for the Red Lake Indians. No positive evidence of a decline 
in abundance was found. Recommendations were offered for the 
proper management of these fisheries, based in part upon studies of 




