18 



Fisherman's 

 contract with 

 buyers. 



Small freezers 

 for fall fish. 



Tests of fishing 

 grounds made by 

 Commission. 



Summer closure 

 on L. Winnipeg, 

 by O.C. April 18, 

 1910. 



Limit specified for 

 total summer catch 

 O.C., April 18, 1910 



pany receives its quota of the winter catch for which the contract 

 was signed before the fisherman left for the fishing grounds. As 

 the companies usually furnish supplies to the fishermen, these con- 

 tracts are a guarantee for repayment by means of the catches of 

 each fisherman. It is interesting to note that along the west shore 

 at the south end of Lake Winnipeg, a number of small freezers have 

 been built by Icelandic settlers and by fish companies, the purpose 

 of these small freezers being- to store the catches of pickerel and 

 coarse fish taken in the fall, in September, October and early Novem- 

 ber. This fall fishery is far less extensive than the winter fishing 

 and much less so than the summer fishing operations; but it occu- 

 pies the local men in the interval between the summer fishing and 

 the winter fishing operations. And, as many of these small freezers 

 are carried on upon co-operative principles, this is a desirable feature 

 as encouraging thrift and enterprise amongst the actual fishing 

 population. 



THE QUESTION OF CLOSING SUMMER FISHING. 



We have already presented in the interim report, dated Novem- 

 ber 26, 1909, certain important conclusions, thirteen in number, to 

 which the evidence received at out public sittings led us; and to 

 these conclusions we shall refer in more detail and support them 

 by the further information we have received. This information was 

 gained in our extended tour of investigation made to the fishing* 

 grounds of Lake Winnipeg by the whole of the members of the com- 

 mission during the summer operations, and by special visits to Lake 

 Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba and to the northern fishing areas 

 of Lake Winnipeg for the purpose of testing the alleged exhausted 

 fishing grounds there after the close of the summer operations, and, 

 finally by an investigation during the fall fishing, these last visits 

 being made by a sub-committee of the commission. The report of 

 this sub-committee forms Appendix 



To the main portion of the interim report, unanimously agreed 

 to by the commission as a whole, there were added two majority re- 

 ports, each bearing the signatures of two members of the commis- 

 sion one report distinguished as addendum A (Page 11 of the in- 

 terim report) which urged that Lake Winnipeg had reached such a 

 serious condition in the opinion of the majority that the total 

 closing of the lake to all summer fishing was justifiable, commencing 

 with the present year 1911, such closure to continue until evidence 

 was forthcoming that the fishery resources of the waters named had 

 recovered in a measure their former plentitude. This recommenda- 

 tion for closing Lake Winnipeg was adopted by the department, and 

 would have come into force during the present year, 1911, in the 

 ordinary course of events. By order in council, dated April 18, 1910. 

 Sec. 12, Sub-sec. 9, it is provided that ' after the year 1910, com- 

 mercial summer fishing shall be prohibited in Lake Winnipeg.' 



The second majority report, distinguished as Addendum B. 

 (page 12 of the interim report), suggests that there should be a 

 limit imposed on the annual catch of whitefish taken during the 

 summer season, June 1 to August 15, and this recommendation of 

 two out of three of the commissioners was adopted by the depart- 

 ment commencing with the summer fishing operations of 1910. By 

 order in council above named, Sec. 12, sub-sec. 9, it was provided 

 that ' During the summer commercial season of 1910, not more 

 than two million four hundred thousand (2,400,000) pounds in the 



