602 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



FISHING INDUSTRY 

 ^ HISTORY 



The fisheries of Lake Ontario began with the setthng of its shores, 

 and the first species sought were the whitefish and trout. These 

 were taken with seines, which gear, it is said, was used as early as 

 1807. Fishing by this method was conducted principally on the 

 northeastern and eastern shores, but seines were also drawn wherever 

 the bottom was suitable. According to all accounts large numbers 

 of sturgeon and herring were included with the whitefish and trout, 

 but these were not desired and were destroyed as nuisances along 

 with the smaller whitefish. The catch was salted, and this practice 

 was continued until about 1860, when the fish became rare in the 

 shore waters. Gill nets were then employed, since thereby the 

 deeper waters could be reached. Pound nets were never widely used 

 on Lake Ontario, and in recent years none have been licensed. 

 With the general decline in abundance of whitefish and trout gill 

 nets of smaller mesh were set for herring and the sturgeon was 

 marketed. 



The catch of trout and whitefish in American waters dropped off 

 to insignificance as early as 1885, and by that year the chief produc- 

 tion on the Canadian shore was herring and ciscoes. The latter 

 were discovered in the western waters about 1860, and played an 

 important rdle in the fisheries of that section for many years. The 

 best fishing grounds on the Canadian side are at the east end of the 

 lake, and at first fishing was most intense there. With the ex- 

 haustion of the original whitefish and trout grounds here and the 

 increase in the demand for herring the center of fishing activities 

 swung to the west end of the lake westward from Toronto. By 1910 

 the economic forces that stimulated fish production on the Canadian 

 side of Lake Erie and in other Canadian waters at about the same 

 time were felt on Lake Ontario, and fishing apparatus increased 

 enormously, resulting in a more intensive and extensive exploitation 

 of the fishery resources, particularly of the salmonids. Since this 

 date over two-thirds of all the netting on the lake has been employed 

 in a small sector to the eastward from Brighton. 



Only a narrow shelf along the American shore is suited for shore 

 fishing, and since this area was thoroughly exploited from the begin- 

 ning the American fishermen had no other place in which to look for 

 whitefish or trout and turned their attention to other species. 



About 1875, out of Oswego, a large deep-water herring was dis- 

 covered in 60 fathoms and deeper, which supported the fishing 

 industry out of that port for about 12 years. These fish were known 

 as "bloaters" and were caught with 33^^ to 4 inch nets. Bloater 

 fishing spread along the shore, and by 1890 was established at 

 Wilson. By 1895 the bloater was everywhere so rare that no one 

 fished in deep water, and since then the little fishing done on the 

 American shore has been carried on chiefly by means of trap nets, 

 which had been in growing use since 1885. 



The trend of the fisheries on the American shore may be clearly 

 expressed by a digest of the statistics over a period of years, itemized 

 in Table 13. 



