26 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



mous in their opinion that where an increase has been noticed, 

 it has resulted almost entirely from plants made, and cannot 

 be attributed to stringent legal measures. The most marked 

 results in the line of very noteworthy success attending pro- 

 tected propagation may be seen in the re-establishment of the 

 shad industries, which a few years ago were on the decline; it 

 will be observed that (with the exception of the removal of 

 obstructions from our rivers, thus allowing the fish to ascend 

 for the purpose of reproduction), protective legal measures 

 regulating the fishing have been practically null and not re- 

 quired to save the shad from almost total extinction and build 

 up the industry to its present proportions — protected propa- 

 gation with tliat one necessary law having done the work. 



Shad ascending the rivers only for the purpose of reproduc- 

 tion are caught only during their spawning season (practically) 

 and as mature fish, and the young shad, probably three inches 

 in length, which leave the rivers in the late fall or early winter 

 to return to the sea and remain there until maturity, which is 

 from three to five years, are practically beyond man's dominion, 

 and comparatively no immature specimens (or young shad) are 

 wasted by out nets. With fish which are not bed-guarders. I 

 think that an observation of the effect of protected propaga- 

 tion on the shad fisheries is sufficient proof that for such fishes 

 there should be no closed season during the spawning season, 

 for then is the harvest and let us reap, but, of course, save seed 

 for the next sowing. ^Miitefish not being anadromous, and 

 the young remaining in the lakes the year round, require pro- 

 tection, which our laws do not seem to furnish. More than 

 one-half the whitefish caught are under two pounds' weight, 

 and about one-half of those weigh less than one pound. This 

 is wholesale slaughter, and a sin! A great many more so- 

 called protective statutes have been passed pertaining to the 

 whitefish industry than to the shad, but the increase in the 

 annual catch of the former the past few years has not been so 

 remarkable as in the case of the shad, and the reason to me is 

 very evident. 



Protected propagation has done its part in both instances, 

 but bad laws relating to our whitefish industry have, to a great 

 extent, counter-balanced the good effects of fish cultural work, 

 one of the most unwise and destructive features being the de- 

 nial of proper protection to immature specimens. The laws 

 that assisted man's protection to nature in the recent re-estab- 

 lishment of the shad fisheries have been very few, but entirely 

 co-operative. However, in spite of injudicious licit measures, 

 and the most persistent and destructive methods of fishing for 

 lake trout and whitefish in the Great Lakes, it has been pos- 

 sible to assist nature to such an extent, by the aid of protected 



