FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 40t 



Apparatus and methods. — The pound net is tlie principal kind of 

 apparatus employed in the fisheries of this lake. It is used in every 

 county, except one, bordering on the lake, and takes larger quantities 

 of fish than all other means combined. The nets are constructed and 

 operated similarly to those in other lakes, and the fishery presents no 

 peculiarities which merit special mention. 



Among the fishing interests of the lake there is a general agitation of 

 the question of the size of mesh in the pound nets. The principal fish- 

 ermen think the mesh should be made large enough to let small fish pass 

 through. While in some places, in the past few years, an advance has 

 taken place in this matter — the mesh being changed from 2^ to Sc- 

 inches — it is held that after the shrinking, which ensues when the twine 

 has been in use for some time, a SJ-inch mesh becomes reduced in size 

 to a 2^-iuch mesh; and it is urged by the most thoughtful fishermen 

 that the mesh should be large enough originally to remain at least 3 J 

 inches after shrinking, some even recommending a 4-inch mesh. 



Many of the fishermen of Saginaw Bay advocate a law which will 

 proliibit the bringing ashore and offering for sale, by fishermen or 

 dealers, of whitefish and pike i)erch under a certain size, and which will 

 prevent the fishermen from using small-mesh nets; they would also like 

 to see it made it obligatory on the fishermen to scoop out of their nets 

 and liberate all small whitefish and pike i^erch which they catch. 



Gill nets are generally used in the American waters of the lake, and 

 are especially X)rorainent as a means of cajjturein Alpena and Presque 

 Isle counties, where the larger quantity of the fish is thus taken, and 

 in Chippewa, Huron, and Iosco counties, where the gill-net catch is a 

 conspicuous part of the yield of the fisheries. The length of the nets 

 varies from 200 to 800 feet, averaging about 500 feet; the depth is 

 usually 5 to feet; and the mesh in the whitefish and trout nets is 

 about 4A- inches. The average cost of the nets is ilO. 



In proportion to the extenl of its fisheries, fewer fishing steamers are 

 owned in Lake Huron than in any other lake, and the gill-net fishery 

 carried on with steamers is now rather less extensive than in 1885. In 

 that year 7 tugs were employed in operating gill nets in addition to 1 

 other engaged in collecting fish. At the time of the last inquiry, how- 

 ever, only 3 fishing steamers belonging in the lake were found, while 4 

 vessels were ascertained to be in the collecting trade. In addition to 

 these, 2 tugs from Detroit fished in this lake a part of the season, mak- 

 ing their headquarters at Alpena. It has been considered advisable to 

 credit these to Detroit, where owned, especially in view of the fact that 

 they were also oj)erated in another lake during part of the year; their 

 catch in Lake Huron amounted to about 274,000 pounds of trout and 

 whitefish, valued at $13,700. 



In the vessel gill-net fishery only trout and whitefish are caught; of 

 these, trout are much more valuable. Statistics show that in the year 

 covered by the inquiry, 335,775 pounds of trout were caught, while only 

 71,300 pounds of whitefish were taken ; these were worth, respectively, 



