PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1939 57 
In order to better acquaint sport fishermen with the true relation- 
ship between the sport and commercial fisheries, and to prevent a 
repetition of the misunderstanding that ae in connection with 
the Potagannissing Bay controversy, Dr. Van Oosten has, within the 
past 2 years, accepted a number of invitations to speak before sports- 
men’s or ganizations in the Great Lakes area. He has agreed also 
to cooper rate in an advisory capacity with the Michigan Department 
of Conservation in a survey of the sport and commer rcial fisheries of 
Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, the leading center of the 
“deep-sea” trolling fishery for lake trout. 
The appointment of Dr. Van Oosten on Feb. 2, 1939, to the Water 
Resources Committee (of the National Resources Committee) for the 
Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence-Champlain Basins, gives the Bureau repre- 
sentation on the basin committees for the entire Great Lakes region. 
Dr. Van Oosten previously had been made a member of the Upper 
Great. Lakes—Superior, Michigan, and Huron—and the Lake Erie 
Basin Committees. 
The long-established policy of full cooperation with oy agencies, 
particularly the State departments of conservation, was continued 
through 1939. Dr. Van Oosten attended 12 meetings thd conferences 
at which Great Lakes fishery problems were considered, and with 
others was directly instrumental in obtaining the Governor’s signature 
to the executive order containing revisions of the Wisconsin fisheries 
code. Five presentations of the mov ing picture, “Great Lakes 
Fisheries Investigations,” were made before groups of scientists and 
sportsmen. 
FISHERY STATISTICS 
The completion of the analysis of the 1938 commercial fisheries 
statistics for the State of Michigan waters of the Great Lakes under 
the direction of Dr. Ralph Hile, made available detailed information 
covering a 10-year period on the fluctuations in the production and 
abundance of important commercial species, and in the intensity of 
the fishery in each of the 21 statistical districts into which the State 
of Michigan waters have been divided. The pronounced decline in 
the pr oduction and abundance of whitefish in Lake Huron constituted 
the outstanding feature of the 1938 data. The production of only 
558,000 pounds was the second lowest on record and was only a little 
more than one-eighth of the record productions of 1931 and 1932. 
The abundance index for whitefish in 1938 was only 29 percent of the 
1929-34 average. The decline of the Lake Huron whitefish has been, 
in large measure, due to the overproduction made possible by the 
use of the extr emely efficient deep trap net. Although the deep-trap- 
net fishery was investigated thoroughly by the Bureau and the Michi- 
gan Department of Conser vation in 1931 and 1932, and regulations for 
its control suggested in the latter year, effective laws restricting the 
use of this gear were not forthcoming until the whitefish stock of Lake 
Huron suffered serious, possibly irreparable, damage. 
RED LAKES INVESTIGATION 
In response to repeated requests by the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, addressed to the Commissioner of Fisheries, Drs. John Van 
Oosten and Hilary J. Deason made a brief survey of the fisheries and 
