6 



Application of 

 Fisheries Act, to 

 Manitoba. 



First licenses 

 issued 1887. 



Investigation of 

 Manitoba Fisheries 

 by the late 

 Mr. Wilmot. 



Various changes 

 in Regulations, 

 1892-1910. 



suggest to the Dominion government that measures should be adopted 

 to prevent the accumulation of sawdust in rivers and streams in 

 such parts of the Northwest Territories wherein saw-mills have been 

 or aro about to be erected.' 



For some years after confederation, no special regulations having 

 Dominion authority were in force in Manitoba; but in the session 

 of the Dominion Parliament of 1873-74, a statute was passed, 37 

 Victoria, Cap. 28, providing for the extension of the Fisheries Act to 

 Manitoba, as well as to Prince Edward Island and British Columbia, 

 by proclamation. In a report, dated December 31, 1874, the Commis- 

 sioner of Fisheries stated that the provisions of this Act were not all 

 of them appropriate to the fisheries of the provinces named, and special 

 local regulations would be necessary. Pie added that to ascertain 

 what regulations were advisable, an investigation had been made and 

 many valuable suggestions had been forwarded to Ottawa, but fur- 

 ther investigations were desirable before adopting any system of 

 regulations and restrictions similar to those in force in the more 

 eastern provinces. 



In 1887, the license system was introduced in Manitoba. In the 

 eastern provinces, fishing under license had been systematically car- 

 ried on from the time of confederation, but there was no such system 

 in force in the west until the date named, and it proved to be from 

 the commencement quite a successful experiment. Official reports 

 state that the method of licensing was most successful, and prevented 

 violations of the law as well as defined the respective fishing locations 

 of the licensees. At the start, 130 gill-nets licenses were issued, and 

 three drag seine licenses, but pound-nets which had been used for 

 sturgeon, were prohibited. 



Among the early regulations applied to the province was a close 

 season for whitefish from October 20 to November 1, but the regula- 

 tions, six in number, passed July 18, 1889, altered this close season 

 to October 5 to November 10, and provided also a close season for 

 pickerel (dore) from April 15 to May 15; and a sturgeon close sea- 

 son from May 1 to June 15, as well as a trout close season from Octo- 

 ber 1 to January 1. There was also a prohibition of the use of 

 explosives in fishing, and a provision providing that waters might be 

 set apart for the sole use of Indians for food purposes. 



In July, 1890, Mr. Samuel Wilmot, Superintendent of Fish Cul- 

 ture, Ottawa, visited the waters of Lake Winnipeg, and, under 

 instructions from the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, he fully 

 inquired into the alleged depletion of whitefish, and reported on 

 desirable regulations, which were submitted to the minister in a de 

 tailed memorandum, printed in the Department of Marine and Fish- 

 eries' report for 1890, to which memorandum reference, is made in 

 subsequent portions of the present report. A new set of regulations 

 based on Mr. Wilmot's report was thereafter framed, and these, with 

 various amendments which have been made from time to time, have 

 practically remained in force until the present time. The regulations 

 were amended in 1892, 1893 and in 1894, and on May 8, 1894, they 

 underwent a further recasting and assumed the form which has con- 

 tinued to the present time. 



In these regulaions a distinction was made between > 



(a) Commercial and domestic licenses, the former being valid 

 from May 1 to August 31, and the latter from the date of issue to 

 December 31, of each year. 



