FISHING INDUSTRY OP THE GREAT LAKES 



589 



1922 was nearly 12,000,000 pounds greater than that of 1908 and 

 almost 15,000,000 pounds greater than the 1917 catch. The increase 

 since 1903 has been chiefly in the production of rough fish by the 

 shore fisheries and in the catch of herring. 



The statistics of the Province of Ontario, for the Canadian shore 

 of Lake Erie, show that in 1922 there were 39 tugs, 158 launches, and 

 204 sail and row boats, employing 1.362,748 yards of gill net and 655 

 pound nets, which yielded a total of 17,686.240 pounds of fish prod- 

 ucts. In Table 8 are given the statistics of 14 censuses, showing the 

 relation between apparatus and catch. 



Table 8. — Relation between gear {except seines) and production in the Canadian 

 xoaters of Lake Erie, as shown by various censuses 



The table shows an immense increase in the development of the 

 Canadian fisheries since 1910. The upward movement began with 

 a great increase in quantity of the apparatus for taking herring 

 around Port Stanley, and the catches of this species increased there- 

 after so that in the next year herring made up about two-thirds the 

 output of fish on the entire lake. After that apparatus increased 

 everywhere, until the peak was reached in 1918, but production has 

 not kept pace with the increase in apparatus employed. 



Table S shows that the increase of apparatus has been greater 

 than the increase in production on the Canadian side. From 1916 to 

 1922 the number of yards of gill netting in use increased ten times 

 and the number of pound nets three times over the figures for 1895, 

 while production only doubled. Table 7, for the American shore, 

 though only three censuses are given, shows with each census not 

 only an increase in total production but in general, also an increase 

 in the productivity of the gear, facts that point to an improvement in 

 the fisheries. 



Conditions do not warrant the unquestioned acceptance of the 

 conclusions that might be drawn from the data in Table 7. Deple- 

 tion is generally considered to be less serious in the Canadian waters 

 of Lake Erie, and for that reason, in part, the duty on Canadian 

 fish was asked by American fishing interests. The figures may be 

 interpreted to show the opposite. 



Production in American waters in the season of 1925 and also in 

 the winter of 1925-26 is reported to have been unusually low, a 

 situation one would not expect from the census of 1922. Further- 

 more, in 1922, in the face oi 50 per cent and greater increases in the 

 productivity of gear, the amount employed was less than in 1917. 

 This is not the usual economic reaction to prosperous conditions. 

 It may also be argued that between 1917 and 1922, for which period 

 statistics are lacking, production may have declined and gear have 



