22 REPOET OF ONTAEIO GAME Xo. 52 



first appreciate that the claims of these men were unjust, the same 

 public would no doubt quickly realize that there is plenty of work 

 throughout Ontario for those anxiouB to find it, and would further 

 most willingly open its ears to the legitimate and seductive argument 

 of cheap fish food for the citizen's of the Province. 



The conclusions to be drawn from the above section would appear 

 to be, then, that so long as it is necessary to maintain a close season, 

 so long will it be highly beneficial to the general fisheries to set aside 

 from commercial fishing isuch areas as are only made use of by the fish 

 for the purposes of spawning, or which for the most part are only 

 inhabited by the small or immature of the commercial fish. 



A Close Period. 



As a final recourse for the rehabilitation of an exhausted but not 

 completely annihilated supply of animal life, there is no more apparent 

 expedient than that of declaring a close period. This method has been 

 tried out in regard to game and game birds in several localities with 

 considerable success, but no government has as yet made the experiment 

 in regard to commercial fisheries, although there are certain well known 

 instances where such a measure would long since have proved an inesti- 

 mable benefit. In the case of Ontario's Great Lake fisheries, although 

 the decrease continues to be alarmingly marked, it mu«t be remembered 

 that at the present time the great bulk of the fish caught in Canadian 

 waters finds its way into the markets of the greater American cities. 

 Consequently, it would appear that the introduction of such a measure, 

 which could not but entail considerable hardship on the citizens of the 

 Province, need never be resorted to, until at least the experiment has 

 been made of retaining Canadian fish for Canadian consumption only, 

 an enactment which obviously would at once very considerably diminish 

 the demand for, and consequently the drain on, the fish, for it would take 

 no doubt some considerable time to develop a really extensive fish mar- 

 ket throughout the Province, and this would afford the fisheries at 

 least a period in which to recover from their exhaustion. 



THE EFFECT ON THE WHITEFISH FISHERIES OF 

 EXTENSIVE HATCHERY OPERATIONS. 



In several sections of this report reference has already been made 

 to the fish hatchery operations which have been and are being con- 

 ducted in connection with the great lakes fisheries. It has been pointed 

 out that so far as Canadian waters are concerned the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment alone has engaged in this enterprise, and at that not very ex- 

 tensively throughout the major portion of the fishery areas. On the 

 other side of the border, however, a very different situation exists, for 



