1900 ] FISHERIES DEPARTMENT. 11 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES. 



For many years our great lake fisheries have contributed a considerable por- 

 tion of the fish food not only of the people of our own Province but of the 

 neighboring Republic. Perhaps ninety-five per cent, of the whole catch is con- 

 sumed in the 'united States. If there is one industry in the Province more than 

 another that deserves protection and attention, it is this great fishing industry, as 

 it affects most vitally not only the present population, but generations which are 

 to come. The hatcheries are doing a great work towards replenishing the drain 

 upon the whitefish and the lake trout, no fewer than 98,625,000 fry having been 

 deposited in Ontario waters this year; but so long had the young of these fish 

 been taken before they had come to a spawning age, that the efforts put forth 

 have not yet been rewarded by any considerable improvement.* 



Fertilizing Lake Trout and Whitefish Eggs. 



There is no doubt a tremendous loss of the spawn of the lake trout and white- 

 fish where this matures at a period which is not covered by the present close 

 season, and steps should in the opinion of the undersigned be taken for the pre- 

 vention of a portion at any rate of this serious waste. In Lake Superior the 

 trout begin spawning about the 28th September and finish by the 10th October, 

 and therefore the spawn of all ripe fish taken previous to the 1st November is a 

 total loss. The method pursued in some of the neighboring States is, during the 

 gravid period, to place men upon the fishing tugs to take the eggs of the female fish 

 and impregnate them with the milt of the male. The eggs are then carefully planted 

 on the natural spawning beds as the fishermen return their nets to the water. The 

 results have proved most satisfactory. In fact, the Legislature of Wisconsin has 

 enacted that the fishermen " shall" during certain specified periods — the spawning 

 period, " take the eggs from the female trout while alive, and the milt from the 

 male trout while alive, and after mixing them together in a pail or pan, immed- 

 iately east them into the water from whence such fish were taken" and very severe 

 penalties are provided for the violation of this clause. The fishermen might well 

 in their own interests readily adopt this means of assisting in maintaining the 

 fish supply; but the expense to the Department of placing an experienced man 

 on each tug for a fortnight or so would not be great, and it is believed the ex- 

 periment should be tried. 



INLAND FISHERIES. 



And while special importance must always be attached to our commercial or 

 industrial fisheries by reason of their vast extent and great economic value, the 

 importance of out* inland, or what may be perhaps more fitly termed our " senti- 

 mental " fisheries is of but slightly lesser importance, not only as a valuable 

 source of food supply, but on account of the large number of people whom they 

 attract every year from far and near to our province. Rare now is the locality 

 one may visit during the months of July and August where he will not find the 

 summer visitor with creel slung over his shoulder and rod in hand meandering 

 along some chattering brook or rushing river, or seated in his buoyant skiff or 

 canoe in search of the speckled beauties or their golden and green garbed rival, 

 the bl?ck bass. Scarcely a day passes from the beginning to the end of these 

 months that whole train loads of tourists are not carried to our holiday districts ; 

 and each year brings an increasing number, all in search of health, rest or recre- 

 ation, to which the pastime of fishing is so valuable an adjunct. Some of these 



*See Table p. 80, for the number of fiy deposited in the waters of the Province since confederation. 



