560 U. S. BUREAU OP FISHERIES 



owner gets about one- third and the remainder is prorated among the 

 employees. 



Excepting on the American shore of Lake Erie, and sometimes in 

 the larger ports elsewhere, labor is not organized. On the American 

 shore of Lake Erie the labor organizations are so powerful that in a 

 measure they fix the minimum price per pound for their catches. 

 Everywhere it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain help. No 

 new recruits are being added to replace those who die and the fluc- 

 tuating supply of unskilled labor can not be used. 



PRODUCTS 



Most of the fish are sold fresh, when they are shipped in wooden 

 boxes containing 100 to 150 pounds of fish well packed in ice. The 

 express companies require adequate ice packing and charge one-fourth 

 the weight of the fish extra for the ice, however much or little it may 

 weigh. The fish are sorted and packed by one or two men who do 

 nothing else, and are shipped according to the instructions of the 

 manager. 



Some of the fish companies have a retail trade (which, however, 

 never assumes the proportions which the furnishing of fresh fish at 

 cheap prices should), but most of the products are sold to distributors. 

 Large producers or wholesalers on the Lakes maintain freezers, in 

 which their catches are frozen and kept until market conditions are 

 favorable. Except for the chubs and some Lake Erie herring, which 

 are smoked, and sometimes the herring from other lakes, which are 

 often salted, the bulk of the fish is put on the market in a fresh state. 

 All of the fish are dressed as soon as caught, excepting those intended 

 for the Jewish trade in the New York markets. Whitefish, wall- 

 eyed pike, carp, and suckers are the chief support of this trade and are 

 mainly taken in pound and trap nets. The salted and smoked fish 

 are prepared chiefly for the consumption of the foreim-born popula- 

 tion, but the latter product is also widely esteemed by the native 

 population where its qualities are known. Unlike the ocean herring, 

 these lake fish are salted lightly and are smoked over a fire which coOks 

 them at the same time. Thus prepared the product is perishable 

 and must be disposed of within a week or two. 



A small quantity of oil is rendered from the fish offal at a few of the 

 ports, but lor the most part the offal, though abundant and rich in 

 oil, is destroyed because there are so many difficulties in the way of 

 converting it into a marketable product. Latterly the practice of 

 making caviar out of whitefish and herring roe to take the place of 

 sturgeon caviar, which is becoming rare, has spread to various ports, 

 but the production has not yet become significant. 



The principal species in the Great Lakes, as given by the Bureau of 

 Fisheries' census for American waters for the year 1922, given in 

 order of magnitude of the catch, are ciscoes (herring and chubs), blue 

 pike, lake trout, carp, sauger suckers, yellow perch, wliitefish, yellow 

 pike, and sheepshead. Species of minor importance include catfish and 

 bullheads, lawyer, eel, white bass, Menominee whitefish, pike, bowfin, 

 rock bass, sturgeon, and sunfish. The Canadian statistics for 1922 

 do not separate the species in so much detail. The principal species 

 listed in order of abundance on the Canadian shore are herring, 

 trout, blue pike, whitefish, "coarse fish" (including every species 



