REPORT OF THE No. 3 



complete record of their dail\- fishing activities. This plan of reporting was 

 adopted from the monthly report system now in effect in the State of Michigan 

 and other states bordering the Great Lakes, where it has been enforced now for 

 some fifteen years with very satisfactory results. The monthl\- report includes 

 such required data on each da>-'s fishing activities as, the month in which the 

 fishing was done, the fishing locality (that is, lake and the section of that lake), 

 the kind and amount of gear fished and the catch in pounds of each species taken. 



In order to be able to obtain data for individual areas or districts within a 

 lake, all of the Great Lakes have been divided into statistical districts, in such a 

 way so as to make the districts on the Ontario side of the Great Lakes comparable 

 to the similar districts on the United States side. Therefore, it is hoped that 

 data on the commercial fishing in the Great Lakes will be on a more uniform 

 basis, as many of the States bordering the Great Lakes, as well as the Province 

 of Ontario, have adopted this statistical system of collecting records. B\- 

 having our districts coinciding as near as possible with those on the United States 

 side of the Great Lakes, a more complete i)icture can be presented. 



The reports are sorted according to the month, the district, and the type 

 of gear, and at the end of each year a complete statistical analxsis will be made 

 from these reports. This anahsis will make possible an estimation of the 

 annual fluctuations and the abundance of the different commercial species in 

 the various statistical districts, as these fluctuations are reflected in the "catch 

 per net". It is hoped, therefore, to have on hand, data for each of the com- 

 mercial species of fish in the Province, as to the quantity of fish taken, the 

 amount of gear used to take that catch, the month in which it was taken, and 

 the area of a district of a kike from where it was taken. 



These monthly reports do not include an\' information such as the number 

 of men employed per licence, the amount of gear on hand and the value of same, 

 and with this in mind it has been decided to continue with the Annual Report, 

 as it will be used to obtain these facts and also to show the total catch of a lake 

 b>' species by year. 



At first, the monthU' re]jorts were incomi)lete and in(li\i(lual rej)orts were 

 often fault}-. It is not felt that any reliable data will l)e obtained from the 

 reports of 1946 and 1947, as it will take some little time before the system is 

 properly functioning and all fishermen are reporting correcth' each month. It 

 is hoped that b>' the beginning of 1948 this system should be sufficiently estab- 

 lished to be able to make an anah-sis of the data obtained during the months 

 of 1948. 



The overall picture of the commercial fisheries in Ontario in 1946, showed 

 a net decrease of 1,277,624 pounds as compared with 1945. This reduction in 

 catch was spread throughout the fishery in general and at the same time there 

 was an increase in the gear used. This would indicate that the fisheries through- 

 out the Province were even less productive than the statistics of catch alone 

 would indicate when comparison is made with 1945. 



In 1946, Lake Erie produced over half the total catch for the whole Pro- 

 vince. The productive capacity of this lake is fairly stable, although there are, 

 of course, some years in which the catch drops to a low ebb and in other years, 

 reaches a peak. However, this catch in general tends to level off since the 

 reduction in numbers of one species, in an>- one year, usually is replaced by an 

 increased production of another or several other species in that year. It is 

 notable that although there was a decrease of 4,649,899 lbs. in the catch of blue 

 pickerel in Lake Erie, the net decrease in total catch for the lake was onl\- 

 24,233 lbs. 



