American Fisheries Society. 59 



another, the Great Lakes and Mississippi another, and tlien the 

 Pacitic coast ; it takes three or four years to get over the ground. 



The hist canvass of the fisheries of Lake Erie showed that 

 there were canght 58,000,000 pounds of fish in 1899, 42,003,000 

 in 1893, 64,000,000 in 1890, 51,000,030 in 1885, and 29,000,000 

 in 1880. There has been considerable phmting of fish and there 

 has been a great development of the commercial fisheries. The 

 figures are correct as far as they go. We are on pretty intimate 

 terms with the fishing firms and every one of them throws open 

 books and records and our figures are copied from these books. 

 The catch is generally larger than the reports show, because we 

 do not see all the fishermen. We do get hold of the fishery firms 

 however. You will see by comparing these different years with 

 the recent catch of 58,000,000 pounds in Lake Erie that that 

 catch is nearly as big as that of the best year, 64,030,000 pounds, 

 and it is away over what it was in 1893. 



Let us take the Great Lakes as a whole; in 1889 these lakes 

 yielded 113,000,000 pounds of fish worth $2,500,000, and there 

 were nearly 10,000 fishermen. This yield compares favorably 

 with that of other 3^cars. 



Here are some fishery facts that I think you will appreciate: 

 There are 19,000 fishermen on the Pacific coast, taking 219,000,- 

 000 pounds of fish a year worth $6,000,000. The catch of shad 

 and striped bass in the I'acific coast states by this canvass, — and 

 these figures were collected by trained statistical agents, — was 

 nearly 2,500,000 pounds, but there never was a shad or a striped 

 bass on the Pacific coast until they were carried overland and 

 planted there. 



Mr. Clark : I carried the first 600,000 that were taken there 

 myself. 



Mr. Tovvnsend : I think that the study of statistics will 

 show the direct and positive benefits of fish culture in all parts 

 of the country. 



The President : Xothing shows it better than the culture of 

 brook trout. 



Dr. Parker: Verification is just what I contend for. They 

 verify those things by taking the shad and striped bass over 

 there. But what I contend is that they do not get the results 

 from planting whitefish in the Great Lakes in proportion to 



