BUREAU OF FISHEEIES V 



has served as a basis for sound fishery legislation. With the death of 

 Doctor Gilbert on April 20, 1928, Dr. Willis H. Rich, for many years 

 his associate, assumed the direction of this work. 



GREAT LAKES FISHERIES SITUATION 



The fisheries of the Great Lakes are a matter of State and provin- 

 cial, national and international concern. The yieeld has been as high 

 as 150,000,000 pounds per annum. The fisheries furnish employment 

 to about 15,000 persons and the investment exceeds $15,000,000. Their 

 value as a source of food is enhanced greatly by their central loca- 

 tion, removed from the great coastal fisheries. They afford recrea- 

 tion to thousands of people and are a source of wealth to shore 

 communities. 



The average annual catch for the period 1913 to 1925 was 122,- 

 000,000 pounds, of which 86,000,000 pounds is credited to the United 

 States and 36,000,000 to Canada. The location of Lake Michigan 

 wholly within the United States accounts in part for the difference. 

 Since 1918, there has been an alarming downward trend from 150,- 

 '000,000 pounds to 100,000,000 in 1925. In 1927, according to reports 

 of the fishermen, summer chub fishing in Lake Huron was the poorest 

 experienced in years. In Saginaw Bay perch and suckers are disap- 

 pearing fast, and even the supposedly inexhaustible herring was on 

 the decline; in fact, the fishery has been a complete failure for two 

 years. Even in Green Bay, one of the most productive herring 

 waters, the species is declining noticeably. In Lake Michigan the 

 trout, whitefish, and chub fisheries were failures. In Lake Erie, the 

 "worst slump in the history of its fisheries was experienced. It is well 

 known that the cisco is disappearing, and now the perch and yellow 

 pike appear to be growing scarce. 



On February 6, 1928, at Cleveland, Ohio, a conference of investi- 

 gators from private institutions and State officials was called by the 

 bureau to develop a cooperative program of investigations for Lake 

 Erie, and as a result a harmonized and well-rounded program of 

 research has been developed. On February 8, 1928, the second meet- 

 ing of the International Fisheries Conservation Council of the Great 

 Lakes was held at Lansing, Mich., as a result of which an excellent 

 beginning has been made toward inaugurating a system of collecting 

 uniform statistics covering the fisheries of these lakes. These records 

 will show the daily catch of each species, location and amount of 

 gear used, type of net, and length of time fished. It was proposed, 

 also, that representatives of the Dominion Government, the Province 

 of Ontario, and the State of Michigan work out an informal plan 

 for uniform regulation of the fisheries of Lake Huron. 



BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



It is the cluty of the Bureau of Fisheries, with regard to marine 

 fisheries, to determine the variations in the supply of commercial 

 species, together with the factors that regulate their abundance, 

 and to encourage the application of this knowledge to their protec- 

 tion and wise use. The estimation of the actual abundance of the 

 stock of fishes in the sea, of the drain to which they are subjected 

 by the commercial fisheries, and of the strain of fishing that they 



