24 TWENTT-EfoHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



of the characteristics of the fish under consideration. What 

 constitutes protection to one kind of fish may be decidedly 

 detrimental to another. But, this truth some of our law 

 makers do not seem to realize, and indiscriminately pass laws 

 practically similar for different fishes whose habits are as far 

 remote as the nature of man resembles that of some of the 

 lower animals. For instance, the class of protection which 

 would insure the perpetuity of the lake trout and whiteflsh 

 would be sure extermination to the black bass and to members 

 of the Siluridae family which are bedguarders. The majority 

 of our laws, however, discourage fish cultural operations. Note 

 the imposition and insured waste of a closed season for lake 

 trout aud whitefish during their spawning period, making it 

 difficult for the Commissions to procure the ova, and consider 

 the heedless destruction of millions of useful germs which die 

 in the unripe fish taken just before the spawning season. If 

 they are to be protected at all^ it should be during the month or 

 months when the largest lifts of unripe fish are made. The 

 laws for the so-called protection of the black bass are equally 

 inconsistent, allowing the fish to be taken from its bed while 

 furnishing such protection to the eggs or fry as nature and 

 instinct have provided as indispensable to the future develop- 

 ment of its brood or progeny. Such laws are not "protection 

 to food fishes." With proper legal support, protected propa- 

 gation is an invention designed to counter-balance the drain 

 upon our stock of food fishes and to sow while man reaps. 



Wise fish cultural oj^erations, supported by co-operative law, 

 are necessary for the future maintenance of our fisheries. The 

 harmonious blending of these two is ''protection to food 

 fishes.-' 



Statistics seem to indicate a marked increase in the annual 

 catch of some of our most important food fishes the past few 

 years, and I am persuaded to believe that these gratifying re- 

 sults are due more especially to protected propagation than to 

 protective legislation — restricting or regulating the fishing — 

 and that, so far, protective laws have been very ineffectual in 

 restoring and maintaining our stock of food fishes, and that 

 nature, when unassisted and not protected by man, could never 

 establish an equilibrium or begin to counter-balance the drain 

 imposed by our commercial fishermen, even with the accurate 

 enforcement of twice our present number of stringent so-called 

 protective measures. And, to spend large sums of money to 

 prevent the people from fishing is in direct opposition to the 

 purpose for which all Fish Commissions w^ere established, and 

 it is an injustice and a hardship to thousands of fishermen, who 

 with their families, are dependent upon our fisheries for a liv- 

 ing; so the kind of protection most humane to the fishermen 



