FISHING INDUSTRY OF THE GREAT LAKES 601 



There are no closed seasons in any State for the protection of any 

 species except those mentioned. 



The laws are in no respect so seriously at variance with one another 

 as in the matter of trap and poimd nets. The smallest mesh that 

 may be used in New York is 3 inches, in Pennsylvania 2]/^ inches, 

 and in Ohio 2J^ inches. In Michigan the mesh of the back of the 

 pot may not be larger than 2 inches unless the mesh of the rest of the 

 pot be at least 4 inches in size. Ontario has no regulations at all 

 governing the size of mesh. Furthermore, some of the States do not 

 distinguish between meshes as manufactured and as fished. Before 

 the netting is used it is tarred, and this treatment increases the 

 diameter of the twine and the water later shrinks it; all of which 

 reduces the size of the mesh. The Ohio law alone specifies that the 

 mesh shall liang squarely so that small fish may be able to escape. 

 If the netting is not properly strung, the openings of the mesh are 

 reduced and the escape of small fish is restricted. Many conserva- 

 tionists believe that up to a certain point the meshes of trap nets 

 can not be made too small, since when they are small fewer fish giU 

 themselves in the twine when the net is lifted. This might be true 

 if the fishermen could be persuaded to take time to lift their nets so 

 slowly that it would be possible to sort out the marketable fish and 

 release the rest without injuring them; but such procedm-e is not 

 always practicable, and the young are too frequently injured or even 

 destroyed in the lifting. There are, furthermore, provisions in the 

 laws of most of the States permitting the possession of from 3 to 10 

 per cent of undersized fish. 



Many States fail to provide size limits for certain species. How- 

 ever, except for the sucker and the pike the other undesignated species 

 are not sufficiently important in the various States, where the laws 

 now make no provision for them, to become the objects of particular 

 legislation. 



LAKE ONTARIO 



DESCRIPTION 



Lake Ontario is the smallest and the farthest east of the Great 

 Lakes and is bounded on the north and west by the Province of 

 Ontario and on the south and east by the State of New York. It 

 has a length of 185 miles and an average width of 40 miles, and, 

 with its bays, a total area of about 7,300 square miles. There are 

 no islands or shoals except near the outlet, where it discharges into 

 the St. Lawrence River. The shores everywhere slope rapidly into 

 deep water, but most rapidly on the south, and the deep trough runs 

 nearer this shore. The 30-fathom contour on an average runs less 

 than 3 miles from land on the southern shore, while on the north it 

 is about 5 to 10 miles distant. The trough broadens toward the 

 east and is overlaid by depths of 70 to 90 fathoms in the western 

 half and by 90 to 123 fathoms in the eastern half. The bottom over 

 most of the lake is clay, with narrow stretches of sand and rock 

 along the shores, particularly among the islands at the eastern end. 



