.liner it ail Fislicrics Society. 25 



To-(ln\ , our tui;s j^o iij) on the risbiii;;- j^roiiuds, sonic two or 

 three humli'ed miles, to gel their sui)])ly of fish." 



The (leerease in the lunnher ol" lish eaut^ht in certain parts of 

 the lake became so i)erce])til)le thai in 1890 the .government aj)- 

 pointed a commission to go to Lake Winnipeg and investigate, 

 to find the cause, if i)ossible. At this lime the use of nets having 

 five-inch mesh was permitted, l)ut the fishermen preferred to use 

 nets of five and one-lialf inches mesh, ll cannot, therefore, be said 

 that thcN' were catching large (juantities of siuall wbitefish with 

 small meshetl nets. This decline in the catch of wbitefish was 

 and is taking place under a close season which has been in force 

 several years. 



I'.ovs who began chasing wbitefish on Lake < 'ntario, then f)n 

 Lake ICrie, Huron, .Michigan and Superior, you will find to-day 

 as aged, white-haired men. still chasing wbitefish on Lake W'in- 

 nii)eg. 



If the government does not soon begin to ])lanl large num- 

 bers of wbitefish fry in this lake, in ;Mu;tber decade the wbitefish 

 of Lake \\'innipeg w ill be a thing of the i)ast, in spite of the close 

 season and the stringent laws which they enforce for their ])ro- 

 tcction. 



I consitle/ the close season for fishing on the (ireat Lakes as 

 being in the interest of the syndicate of fish dealers, who, while 

 the fishing is closed for thirty days, are given an opportunitv to 

 dispense of their frozen fish, which the\- have stored in their 

 freezers in the northwest, to the disadvantage of the small fisher- 

 men on the lakes. 



I believe that if it were not for the liberal planting of white- 

 fish fry in the (jreat Lakes, the wdiitefisb would have been practic- 

 ally externfinated years since. What we need is protection for 

 the small fish; and artificial ])ropagation will keep the lakes and 

 streams well supplied with desirable food fish. 



Secretary Whitaker: So as to c(jrrect the record. I desire to 

 say that \lr. Xevin has made an error in bis figures, so far as 

 Michigan is concerned. as to the decrease or (lro])i)ing ofT of white- 

 fish. In 1885 the statistics were taken b\- a man who was verv 

 thorough in what he did. but be didn't begin to cover the terri- 

 tory that has since been co\^ered by the man now in charge: the 

 figures of 1885 didn't show the total catch of that year. The 

 catch of wbitefish in 1885. as shown, was something over 8.000,000 

 pounds; the last report shows something like* 3.000,000 and some 

 pounds. It has been going down rajjidlw ^Ir. Xevin has made 

 a mistake in his figures. 



