The Fisheries Prices Support Board modified its plan to 

 support the price of yellow perch in 1968 by reducing the 

 price being maintained for perch at the dockside from ten 

 cents to seven cents for the spring period. At the same time, 

 the Department introduced quotas on yellow perch from 

 Lake Erie to insure that the catches would be more evenly 

 distributed over the period when the fishery is active. The 

 quotas, which initially were five million pounds for the 

 April 1-May 31 period and ten million pounds for the re- 

 mainder of the season, were later raised by one million and 

 six million pounds, respectively. 



A series of meetings were held in northwestern Ontario 

 in 1968 to enable fishermen to learn how the operation of 

 a marketing organization, such as the one proposed by a 

 Royal Commission on freshwater fish marketing, would 

 affect them. A majority of the fishermen subsequently ex- 

 pressed the opinion that much of northwestern Ontario 

 should be included in the designated area of a planned 

 Marketing Corporation. 



FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 



The Department, with financial and technical assistance 

 from the Department of Fisheries of Canada, launched one 

 new development program in 1968 and renewed its partici- 

 pation in a second program that was initiated the year 

 before. 



On Lake Ontario, a program of experimental trawling 

 was conducted with the object of assessing the biological 

 and economic feasibility of developing a commercial trawl 

 fishery for smelts and alewives. The work, which was 

 directed by the biologist from the Bay of Quinte Fisheries 

 Management Unit, was carried out under contract by fisher- 

 men and a vessel from the Lake Erie fleet of trawlers. 



Between the dates July 24 and December 13, 1968, 

 searches for fish were made along prescribed courses with- 

 in 50 square-mile sampling areas, using a sensitive echo 

 sounder as a fish detecting device. Tows, with one of several 

 types of trawls provided for the project, were made in those 

 areas where sizeable concentrations of fish were found 

 over a regular bottom suitable for trawling. 



The results were encouraging. Two extensive areas were 

 found where smelts and alewives were dense and where 

 trawling operations could be safely conducted: one in the 

 eastern basin and the other off Hamilton. Both were thought 

 to have commercial potential. Plans were made to conduct 

 further fishing, more on a commercial scale, in those areas 

 and to investigate fully the marketing opportunities avail- 

 able to fishermen who might take the fish. 



Financial aid was provided for a second year to assist the 

 industry on Lake Erie in a study of the economics of operat- 



ing a small, fish meal plant to process filleting wastes and 

 coarse fish. The findings are expected to be useful to a wide 

 sector of the fishing industry, at both the producer and 

 processor level. 



FISHERMEN'S INDEMNITY PLAN 



Twenty-one fishermen availed themselves of the oppor- 

 tunity of obtaining low-cost insurance under the Fisher- 

 men's Indemnity Plan in 1968. This brought to 40 the 

 number of fishermen who had taken out policies since the 

 Plan was introduced to Ontario in 1967. 



The Department's function in the administration of the 

 Plan, which was initiated by the Department of Fisheries of 

 Canada, has been to provide the necessary field services. 

 These include appraising vessels, receiving premiums and 

 investigating claims. 



The sinking of an insured vessel in 1968 resulted in the 

 first payment to an Ontario fisherman being made under 

 the provisions of the Plan. The claim was related to the cost 

 of raising the vessel and restoring it to working order. 



PROJECTS 



An intensive commercial catch, sampling project was under- 

 taken at the western end of Lake Erie in 1968 to secure in- 

 formation needed for developing regulations that would 

 effectively protect immature yellow pickerel and yet not 

 unnecessarily restrict fishing activities directed at other val- 

 ued species. Data on fishing methods, locations and intensity 

 and on catch size and composition, were obtained by three 

 staff members who travelled aboard the fishing vessels. The 

 project represented an extension of a catch sampling pro- 

 gram that is being developed across the Province to moni- 

 tor fisheries and fish populations. 



A study of the changes occurring in a whitefish popula- 

 tion in Lower Rideau Lake was pursued by Kemptville dis- 

 trict staff to establish guidelines for managing the whitefish 

 fishery in future. Commercial fishing was first allowed for 

 these fish in 1966 and it was observed that the population, 

 which earlier had been little exploited, was undergoing 

 rapid change. 



Efforts to define the movements of yellow pickerel within 

 Lake St. Clair and between this body of water and the two 

 adjoining lakes, Erie and Huron, were resumed in 1968. A 

 total of 2,500 of these fish were tagged and released, 1,500 in 

 the Thames River and the remaining 1,000 in Lake St. Clair. 

 Tag returns have indicated that there is some movement be- 

 tween the above mentioned waters, a fact which managers 

 can now take into account. 



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