554 U. S. BUEEAU OF FISHEKIES 



INTRODUCTION 



In the preparation of this account of fishing conditions on the 

 Great Lakes, the reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries 

 of Canada and the Game and Fisheries Department of Ontario, 

 which give statistics of the Canadian fisheries, and the statistical 

 bulletins of the United States Bureau of Fisheries were drawn upon, 

 I am indebted for certain dates relative to the commencement of 

 fishing operations on the various lakes to the very excellent report 

 of Richard Rathbun and William Wakeham with regard to the 

 preservation of the fisheries in waters contiguous to the United 

 States and Canada.^ The sections dealing with fisheries regidations 

 were prepared from the latest issues of the fish and game laws of the 

 various Governments and were supplemented in certain cases by- 

 special rulings and license stipulations. Other material was, in the 

 main, collected by me while studj^ing the systematic relationships 

 and natural history of the whitefishes and lake herrings of the 

 Great Lakes since 1919, and present conditions as herein reported are 

 such as obtained at some time subsequent to that date.^ The sys- 

 tematic and ecological account of the commercial species has been 

 reserved for another publication. The aim of this paper has been to 

 picture, with a historical background, the condition of the fisheries 

 of the Great Lakes as they are to-day and to call attention to the need 

 of intelligent action to preserve those fisheries. 



The statements of annual production appearing in the statistical 



Eublications, and which have been abstracted in the various tables 

 erein presented,* do not, for one reason or another, lend themselves 

 to statistical treatment. Many more data than are included in these 

 publications are needed for statistical analysis ; for example, the total 

 yardage of gill netting or the number of gill nets in use is given, but 

 it is not stated what percentage of these nets were of the various 

 meshes employed in the fisheries. 



The method of collecting statistics is also open to much objection, 

 and I am aware that in several cases serious discrepancies occur be- 

 tween the actual and reported catches. The tables giving the total 

 catch in pounds and which indicate the relative abundance of the species 

 are therefore intended to show only how the production of the various 

 lakes has changed in character. If the catch of those species that 

 were sought in the beginning of the fisheries has declined, it may be 

 assumed that those species are now rarer, and if new species appear 

 in the tables, their appearance may be accounted for by the assump- 

 tion that they have grown in favor rather than in abundance. The 

 tables thus also show, although only roughly, the present abundance 

 of the various commercial species. 



The five Great Lakes occupy a group of valleys which apparently 

 were changed into lakes by events associated with the glacial epoch, 

 and are therefore, geologically speaking, of relatively recent date. 



« Preservation of the Fisheries in Waters Contiguous to the United States and Canada. Message from 

 the President of the United States relating to the report of the joint commissioners. (H. Doc. No. 315, 

 54th Cong., 2d scss., Feb. 24, 1897; Washington.) 



3 This report was submitted to the bureau, virtually in its present form, in March, 1924, but publication 

 has been unavoidably delayed. It has been revised since then only to include the latest statistical figures 

 for American waters, so that changes in the fishing laws and such scientific publications as have appeared 

 subsequent to that date have not been made use of. 



* The quantity of salt fish is often given in barrels in the Canadian returns, and these have been con- 

 verted into pounds at the rate of 200 pounds to the barrel. 



