PRODUCTION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE FOOD FISHES 

 OF THE GREAT LAKES. 



By S. W. Downing, 

 U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Put-in-Bay, Ohio. 



In discussing this question we will confine our remarks to the 

 conditions on lake Erie, and more particularly to that portion 

 of it bordered by the States of Ohio and Michigan. In the 

 beginning, it would seem that nature so adjusted the production 

 and destruction of fishes and all other animal life, that the natural 

 increase and losses just about balanced. In course of time all 

 the waters, both of the ocean and the fresh inland bodies, became 

 well stocked with fish and the numbers were steadily maintained 

 so long as the natural conditions were not disturbed, but as soon 

 as mankind discovered the value of fish for food and financial 

 advantages, an unnatural loss was created. At first this loss was 

 but slight, but as more fish were consumed and the demand and 

 price increased, more effective means were employed. Today 

 the demand and the price have so advanced that every means that 

 man can devise are used in taking fishes. The consequent result 

 has been that natural production could not keep pace with natural 

 destruction when combined with the artificial destruction carried on 

 by the commercial fishermen in order to meet the constantly 

 growing demand for fish as food. In order to restore the balance 

 to normal or natural conditions, this artificial destruction must 

 be overcome, and to do this many means have been suggested 

 and tried and production by artificial or protected propagation 

 has been adopted. We will endeavor in this article to show the 

 number of young fish so produced at the U. S. Fisheries Station at 

 Put-in Bay, Ohio, together with that of the Ohio State hatchery, 

 which is but a stone's throw away from us, by the following table 

 covering the output of the past sixteen years. 



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