FISHING INDUSTRY OF THE GREAT LAKES 



603 



Table 13.^ — Weight, in pounds, of the annual catch of the principal species of 

 fish taken in the American waters of Lake Ontario, as shown by eight censuses 



Species 



1880 



1885 



1890 



1893 



1899 



1903 



1908 



1917 



1922 



Whiteflsh 



Trout 



Herring (including 



bloaters) 



Sturgeon 



Wall-eyed pike 



Perch 



Catfish and bullheads 



Suckers 



Pike 



Carp - 



Eels -- 



Lawyer 



1, 064, 000 

 569, 000 



611,000 

 545. 000 



0) 



(') 



(') 



(') 



(') 



90, 000 

 20, 000 



403, 000 



386, 000 



2 269, 000 



(■) 

 442, 000 



(') 



148, 000 

 41,000 



598, 000 

 541,000 

 331,000 

 358, 000 

 471, 000 

 279, 000 

 129, 000 



45, 000 

 6,000 



164, 000 

 125,000 

 2 216,000 

 131,000 

 69, 000 

 47,000 



(') 



61,000 



257, 000 



(') 



161,000 

 15,000 



86, 000 

 189, 000 

 197, 000 

 407, 000 

 518, 000 

 278, 000 

 100, 000 

 1,000 

 123, 000 



25, 000 

 4,000 



121, 000 

 110,000 



68, 000 

 122,000 

 349, 000 

 773, 000 



31,000 

 4,000 



73, 000 



56,000 

 14,000 



35, 000 



37, 000 

 154,000 



35, 000 

 122, 000 

 128, 000 



87, 000 

 4,000 



44, 000 



88,000 

 23, 000 



424, 000 

 10,000 

 35, 000 

 31,000 

 45, 000 

 71,000 

 15,000 

 25, 000 

 41, 000 

 61,000 



54,000 

 46,000 



187, 000 

 34, 000 



141,000 

 30, 000 



107, 000 

 77, 000 

 19, 000 



138, 000 

 45,000 

 15,000 



> Not itemized. 



' Including pike. 



In 1880 whitefish, trout, herring, and sturgeon made up over 75 per 

 cent of the total production of 3,640,000 pounds; the greatest year on 

 record. In the six censuses taken between 1885 and 1908 the catch of 

 these species, combined, was less than half that of " rough fish " — 

 principally wall-eyed pike, perch, eels, suckers, and such other species 

 as frequent the shores. The high point in the production of rough 

 fish was reached in 1890, and the catch has declined since, so that in 

 1917, even with the stimulant of war prices, the total yield of these 

 species fell below that of any previous census and was exceeded by 

 the .424,000-pound catch of herring in that year. In 1921 the New 

 York law was amended to permit fishing to within }4 mile of shore, 

 instead of 1 mile, and it is possible that the sHghtly increased catch 

 of 1922 was partly due to the enlarging of the available fishing 

 grounds. 



The history of Canadian fisheries has been more cheerful, due to 

 better fishing grounds on that side of the lake and also to the greater 

 care taken of them. After the whitefish and trout feU off (in about 

 1885) the chief fisheries were for ciscoes, herring, and rough fish, and 

 not until 1905, when netting was more commonly used in the eastern 

 waters, which have always produced m.ost of the whitefish and trout, 

 ■did these species rise to prominence again. They are now the 

 mainstay of the Canadian fisheries, though significant quantities of 

 herring and rough fish are also produced. Ciscoes have for many 

 years been commercially extinct. Herring were caught chiefly 

 west of Toronto until 1918, but since then they have become rarer in 

 these waters and the catches in the east have increased so that now 

 the east side of the lake exceeds the west side in the output of these 

 fish. Rough fish have always been most abundant in the east. 



PRESENT STATUS, METHODS, AND APPARATUS 



On the American shore only small launches are now used in the 

 fisheries and trap nets and fyke nets are their chief equipment. 

 Occasionally, however, a larger boat, usually from Lake Erie, 

 equipped with abundant up-to-date apparatus, has been lured to Lake 

 Ontario by the prospect of great fish wealth present in the deeper 

 waters, into which the frail craft of the native fishermen do not 

 venture, but the prospectors soon become disillusioned and return 

 whence they come. There are still a few gill-net fishermen, mainly 



