20 KEPOKT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



are congregated in throngs on the spawning beds, and the result of 

 netting them at this period, must in each and every case be alike, namely 

 depletion, unless, of course, some provision is made to care for the 

 spawn. 



It would appear then, that in so far as the fiKheries of Ontario are 

 concerned, the time has most certainly not yet arrived for the aban- 

 donment of the close season, but that on the contrary its continuance 

 remains a most vital necessity; that in view of the steadily diminishing 

 production of the Canadian great lake fisheries and of the absence of 

 adequate fish hatchery plants it is imperative to obtain the utmost pos- 

 sible benefits from the close season ; that these benefits can only be fully 

 secured by the most rigid enforcement of the close season, which implies 

 an adequate force of competent and honest officials supplied with an 

 ample and efficient equipment; and, lastly, that some measures should 

 be taken without delay to secure a revision of the dates of the various 

 close seasons, so that they may tally with the actual dates of the spawn- 

 ing movements in the various areas of the Provincial fisheries. 



Close Areas. 



Nearly allied with the question of close 'seasons is that of close 

 areas. It has been pointed out that for the greater portion of the year 

 the mature fish inhabit certain areas which may be deemed their normal 

 feeding grounds; that the immature fish will be frequently found at 

 these periods in shallower water, and that the mature or commercial 

 fish leave their regular feeding grounds at certain known periods of 

 the year for the purpose of spawning, proceeding in general to certain 

 well-known, or at least easily located, areas to perform their breeding 

 functions. 



The general principle of setting aside areas for the conservation of 

 natural resources has been widely accepted, and is applied to-day in the 

 matter of headwaters of river systems, forests, bird and animal life, 

 perhaps nowhere more extensively so than in the Province of Ontario, 

 but in the conservation of fish life in the great lakes it is conspicuous 

 only by its almost total absence. Why this should be the case it is hard 

 to explain, for plainly a principle, acknowledged to be so eminently 

 beneficial to other great but exhaustible natural resources, could not 

 well but prove itself equally advantageous in the conservation of fish 

 life. 



In the Report of the Dominion Fisheries Commission on the Fish- 

 eries of the Georgian Bay, a recommendation was made as to the set- 

 ting aside of a considerable area, in which no commercial fishing what- 

 ever should be allowed, and rod and line angling only on the payment 

 of a special fee. Although this most excellent recommendation was 

 designed more particularly for the purpose of perpetuating in these 

 waters the sporting fish, the black bass, the mascalonge, and the pick- 



