ARE THE HATCHERIES ON THE GREAT LAKES 



OF BENEFIT TO THE COMMERCIAL 



FISHERMEN? 



By S. W. Downing 



We have often been asked, "Is the propagation of food 

 fishes at the hatcheries really any benefit to the commercial 

 fishermen and the fishing industry generally?" My reply 

 has always been, "I certainly believe it is," and in this paper 

 1 will endeavor to prove the assertion. 



At all the stations on the Great Lakes which are being- 

 operated for the propagation of the fishes most sought after 

 by those who catch fish for market, the supply of eggs for 

 hatching are all obtained from the fish caught for market 

 by the commercial fishermen, the eggs being secured either 

 by having men go out in the boats with the fishermen to 

 strip the ripe fish as they are taken from the nets, or by pur- 

 chasing the fertilized eggs from the fishermen at a certain 

 price per quart. The number of eggs so secured necessarily 

 depends upon the number of fish taken by the fishermen, 

 and as the number of eggs collected from year to year has 

 steadily increased, it is safe to say that the number of fish 

 caught by the commercial fishermen has increased in like 

 proportion. 



To show the increase from year to year in the number of 

 eggs received at the Put-in Bay, Ohio, station, I have formu- 

 lated the following table, covering a period of twenty years, 

 beginning with the year ending June 30, 1892, and ending 

 with the year ending June 30, 1911, and showing the num- 

 bers of all kinds of eggs collected in the different fields oper- 

 ated by the Put-in Bay station : 



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