420 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The fishing population of Lake Erie numbers about 4,500 ; the amount 

 of capital invested in the fishing industry is $2,816,300; the quantity 

 of fish caught in 1890 was 01,850,000 pounds, having a first value of 

 over 11,000,000. 



The prominent aspects of the fisheries of this lake are the large fleet 

 of steam vessels engaged in the gill-net fishery, and the large number 

 of steamers employed in collecting fish from the pound net and other 

 fisheries — phases of the industry which are here more imf)ortant than 

 elsewhere in the lake system; the enormous amount of gill nets used 

 in the vessel and boat fisheries, the great development of the pound- 

 net fisheries, and the great distances to wliich connected lines of pound 

 nets extend ; the completeness with which the waters of the lake are 

 scoured with fixed and movable appliances of capture; the taking of 

 greater quantities of certain fishes than are obtained in all the other 

 lakes combined; and the extensive trade in lake fish carried on in the 

 cities bordering on the lake. 



Of scarcely less importance than the actual extent of the fisheries of 

 the lake, is the serious decline which has recently been observed in some 

 of the most valuable food-fishes. The discussion of the exhaustion of 

 the fish supply of the lake, of the means to check a further diminution, 

 and of the necessity of taking energetic measures for the increase of 

 the fish life has been one of the most noticeable public questions per- 

 taining to the lake fisheries in recent times, and the great interests 

 here at stake have fully warranted the attention already given and 

 deserve much further consideration. 



The inquiries conducted by this Commission show that the aggre- 

 gate yield of the fisheries of the lake in 1890 was probably larger than 

 at any ijrevious time and was considerably larger than in any earlier 

 year for wliich data were available. The money value of the products 

 was but little less than in 1885 and much greater than in 1880. An 

 examination of the statistics, however, at once- discloses the fact that 

 the catch has been maintained and increased only by the use of larger 

 quantities of apparatus and by the capture and utilization of the 

 cheaper species of fish, while even a very marked increase in the quan- 

 tity of fishing apparatus has not been able to keep up the supply of the' 

 whitefish, sturgeon, and pike perches. 



Notes on the principal fishes of the lake. — The natural conditions in this 

 lake appear to be unusually favorable to the existence and production 

 of enormous quantities of desirable food-fishes, whose fecundity and 

 physical surroundings have made possible the extensive fishing which 

 this lake has for many years supported. The general shoalness of the 

 lake, while permitting the j)rosecution of the fisheries under conditions 

 that are the least Cvvnducive to the continuance of an unimpaired sui)p]y, 

 furnishes a large spawning area and appears to favor the development 

 of a rich and varied fauna and flora luiving an important bearing on 

 the food supply of the economic fishes. 



Several fishes exist in greater numbers in Lake Erie than in any 



