20 THE REPORT OF THE No. 31 



As a District Overseer, he has found a ready response towards organization, and 

 without friction in our ideas as to what is required for their localities, and he is the 

 recipient of questions frequently submitted which are weighed together, and always 

 with ihe best possible feeling. 



District Overseer Lamarsh, Wheatley, reports that he has been over his district 

 sc viral times, and reported to the department as to complaints made, etc. 



He is sorry to again report a continued decrease in the catch of herring in Lake 

 Erio ; in fact there has been a general decrease in most kinds of fish caught the past 

 year. The herring, the most valuable fish in Lake Erie, show a continuous decrease 

 since 1899, and the fishermen are becoming fearful that the continuation of gill net 

 fishing by tugs in the head of Lake Erie, and poaching by the Americans in Can- 

 adian waters will very shortly have the (herring all but extinguished in Lake Erie. 

 Already many of the pound net fishermen are considering whether it is worth while 

 to take out licenses again: If the Department cannot devise some method or policy to 

 preserve the herring fisheries in Lake Erie, they must look out for a tremendous falling 

 oft' in the revenue ifrom that source, and as very nearly one-ihalf the whole revenue 

 of the Department comes from the fisheries on Lake Erie, the Department should have 

 a great concern in their preservation. From his observation of the gill net fishing he 

 is convinced that it is a mistake to permit gill netting for herring in the fall, as most 

 of the fish caught are spawn herring, and it only stands to reason that if you destroy 

 the parent fish while in the act 'of reproduction it will not be long before the species 

 will become utterly extinct. 



The Department has made regulations for the preservation and propagation of black 

 bass, and other kinds of fish. Yet in the face of the continuous decrease in catch of 

 herring during the past five years, nothing has been done for the protection of the 

 •herring fisheries by withholding privileges which are destructive to parent fish, or 

 nuking regulations for the protection of the herring. 



The very early set in of winter, which started about the middle of November, again 

 carght a number of nets in the ice between Point Pelee and the Detroit River, some 

 losing all their nets, stakes, etc. 



He is still of the opinion that it would be in the interest of the fishermen and 

 protection of the fish, if the Department could have all fishing suspended by the 20th 



of November each fall. 



From fishermen and others along the shore from Point Pelee to Port Stanley, he 

 learns that the Americans enjoyed about two months good' fishing, from early in March 

 to the first of May, in Ontario waters, without molestation. The lake opened early in 

 Maich. andl navigation began about the 10th. The Dominion G. S. Petrel did not get 

 down from Upper Lakes till the first of May, with the result that American tugs 

 were scattered all along our shore, fishing. The Petrel should go into commission here 

 as soon as navigation opens, which is usually early in March. 



Complaints come from some of the fishermen in Lake Huron of damages to nets 

 by rafts of logs, and he thinks some additional legislation necessary for the protection 

 of the fisheries from such causes. 



He would say in conclusion that, while there has been a great decrease in catch 

 of fish, that the prices have increased greatly, which has in some measure compensated 

 for decrease in catch ; although those who depend on the Herring principally actually 

 lost money in the season's operation. 



The price of fish has risen so high that good fish has become a luxury, instead of 

 foot! for the massses. 



District Overseer McCargar reports that the fishermen had hard luck during the 

 spring in the Bay of Quinte, Weller's Bay, Consecon Lake, and the Trent River sections. 

 There was but a small catch of bull heads in all the above places, both spring and 

 fall. The water was so high that the fish kepj: in the marshes, and during the fall it was 



