24 



Fish should be 

 mature before 

 capture. 



lutely necessary. We, therefore, recommend that certain sizes of 

 fish should be specified in the regulations, below which no fish can be 

 legally captured. We also recommend that the legal mesh of the 

 various nets should be increased/ An increase in the size of the 

 mesh of nets means, of course, that quantities of net hitherto legally 

 and now legally in use would become useless unless sufficient notice 

 of a change were given and time allowed for wearing out the present 

 .nets and for obtaining a supply of new nets of larger mesh. We, 

 therefore, in our present recommendations, have adopted the plan of 

 gradually increasing the size of mesh with a sufficient interval of 

 time to allow the fishermen to provide themselves with nets in accord- 

 ance with the proposed new regulations. We cannot resist the con- 

 clusion that by gradually increasing the mesh in this way less hard- 

 ship will be felt by the fishermen and the fish firms and the average 

 size of fish taken will, of necessity, be improved. The question has 

 been discussed at great length by the Commission as to the mini- 

 mum size of whitefish which matures or produces eggs. The view 

 has been widely expressed that a large quantity of the whitefish 

 taken in the waters of Manitoba, say two pounds or under, have not 

 reached maturity and have never had the chance to spawn. Of 

 course, if vast quantities of fish are captured before they have had 

 a chance to spawn, the result must be serious for the future of the 

 fisheries, and, whatever the facts may be, it seems desirable to 

 increase the average size of fish taken so that the majority of the 

 fish shall have a chance of depositing their eggs or of reaching a 

 mature condition, when their eggs can be utilized for hatchery pur- 

 poses. 



UNDER-SIZED WHITEFISH ON THE MARKET. 



During the present winter the fact was called, to the attention 

 of the Commission that several carloads of whitefish, caught in the 

 waters at the north end of Lake Manitoba, were found by the buyers 

 after purchase, to be fish of such small average size, that it was 

 necessary to hold them back until catches of larger size fish could be 

 secured to mix with them before exporting the whole. In this way 

 alone was it possible to raise the average of the shipment to a market- 

 able size. These small whitefish, it is well known to the .fishermen, 

 are really a drug in the market, there is so little demand for them. 

 There is practically no sale for such under-sized fish, not exceeding 

 2 pounds in weight, and a large quantity of such whitefish, caught 

 during the preceding winter (1909-10) are, the Commission is aware, 

 still held in cold storage at Winnipeg because there has been found 

 in be no sale for them. There appears to be no way of effectually 

 stopping this capture of whitefish, immature and of small size, so 

 long as pickerel or dore nets, of a mesh so small as 4 or 44-inch 

 extension measure, are used on grounds frequented by whitefish. 



We are convinced that it will be absolutely necessary to require 

 the use of nets of not less than 51-inch extension measure if such a 

 destruction of small whitefish as that we refer to is found to continue. 

 It would in our opinion be the duty of the Inspector of Fisheries to 

 see if the abuse we refer to ceases and if the capture of small white- 

 fish continues, in the way we have described, the Department should 

 on the report of the Inspector refuse to sanction the issue of licenses 

 for nets of less mesh than 5i-inch extension measure, on grounds 

 known to be the resort of whitefish. Small meshed nets should not 

 be permitted on any area in the lakes of the province where there is 

 a certainty of whitefish being captured in any considerable quantities. 



