AMERICAN FISHEUIES SOCIETY. 33 



imposes a liceuse u|tou those who I'lijov the beiu'hts of the Ush- 

 eries; and my opinion is that Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake 

 Ontario and I.ake Superior wouhl be in the same condition as 

 Lake Michij^an if it were not for the fact that one-lialf of the 

 waters of those lakes are ])rotected by hiw. For years the 

 Canadian Government has soujiiit co-ojieration from the states 

 adjoining- their boundary so tliat laws might be passed that 

 would agree with their own and give the needed ]»rote(tion, 

 and two years ago Michigan proposed laws to protect the fish- 

 eries during the spawning season. 



Let me here say that there is pretty good authoritv as to the 

 necessity for a close season, furnished by the official i*e])ort of 

 the fnited States expert above referrcnl to that may be prop- 

 erly referied to in this connection. I have not had time for 

 the preparation of a ]ia])er, but there are some things that I 

 would like to call attention to in this report which I have here, 

 which seem to me to verify and carry out the idea that the 

 fisheries do need protection and need it badly, and that the 

 closed season is one of the things to be recommended. (The 

 speaker here read quotations from the report referred to.) 

 Now, there is no difficulty whatever in a state passing a law 

 if it chooses, making a closed season, such as these gentlemen 

 recommend, and which has been recommended or favored as 

 far as I know, by most every meeting that has been held to 

 consider the protection of fisheries. If such laws are passed 

 by a state, it does not necessarily follow that because a closed 

 season is fixed, fish-culturists cannot secure the ova of fish 

 with which to carry on artificial propagation. Power is pos- 

 sessed on the part of the states to pass such an act as is now 

 upon the statute book of Michigan, permitting tlieir Boards of 

 Fish Commissioners to take fish for purposes of artificial prop- 

 agation at any and all seasons of the year wiien necessary. So 

 there is no argument in the claim that because a state imposes 

 a close season for the protection of fish in their spawning sea- 

 son, the work of artificial propagation must cease. The 

 trouble has been heretofore that the tendency of legislation 

 respecting the fisheries has been towards a protection of fish- 

 ermen in a right to fish at all times of the year, and not to a 

 protection of the fish. When you take an industry which you 

 pursue ruthlessly from one end of the year to another, with- 

 out restriction as to size of mesh, without restriction as to 

 size of fish, without restriction as to fishing on spawning beds, 

 you will find that what has happened will always happen. We 

 find the whitefish catch declined in Michigan from eight mil- 

 lion pounds in 1885 to three and a half million pounds five 

 years later. Now. where are you going to get your whitefish, 

 with this continuing decrease? Where are you going to get 

 5 



