1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 37 



annual profit to the man who does the actual fishing lies somewhere 

 between |400 and |800 only, so that, although work is conducted dur- 

 ing certain portions of the year only, and there are in consequence 

 periods of idleness, which doubtless lend an additional attraction to the 

 life in the view of many of those engaged in it, none the lesis it can hardly 

 be deemed a profitable occupation in comparison with others under the 

 conditions in Avhich it exists to-day. There is, moreover, plenty of room 

 for those who Avould have to abandon their calling in other walks of 

 life in this Province, so that there would be no real hardship to them, 

 and it would seem that the at least temporary disappearance of some 

 proportion of them from this business could not but result in an amelior- 

 ation of the condition of those who remained in it, seeing that what 

 profits there were in the business would be divided amongst a less 

 number of men, thus tending to raise the standard of life in the classes 

 which engage in fishing, and creating a more remunerative and engag- 

 ing prospect for those who would enter or re-enter this calling in due 

 course as the necessities of a growing Ontario market required them. 



It might be argued that if total prohibition of export were intro- 

 duced for a term of years, there would be such a rapid increase in the 

 numbers of coarse and predaceous fishes, OAving to the lack of a market 

 for these at least at first, that the more valuable and defenceless species, 

 such as the whitefish, would derive very little actual benefit from the 

 measure. It must be remembered, however, that total prohibition of 

 export would, in all probability, only be introduced as one plank in a 

 broad scheme for the conservation and development of the fisheries, and 

 that accompanying it there would be, also, instituted an efficient system 

 of fish hatcheries, whose first and chiefest attention would obviously be 

 devoted to the more valuable fishes. It is indisputable, as has been 

 shown in a preceding section, that the fish hatcheries can by modern 

 scientific methods hatch a far greater percentage of the eggs of the 

 parent fish than would be effected under natural conditions, and conse- 

 quently, as the hatching system became perfected, the number of young 

 fishes in the water as the result of one season's spawning would be vastly 

 greater than tlie average now being attained by the same number of 

 parent fish. This alone would seem to be sufficient to counteract the 

 ill effects of giving the coarser and predaceous varieties even a somewhat 

 protracted period of security from the American markets. 



The principle of the prohibition of export, however, is not only 

 capable of general application to the product of the fisheries, but in a 

 more restricted sense to individual varieties of fish. Indeed, the alarm- 

 ing decrease in the annual catch of whitefish caused the Georgian Bay 

 Fisheries Commission to recommend such a measure to the Dominion 

 Government in regard to that particular species. Naturally, if the 

 export of one or two varieties were prohibited by legislation, the fish 

 trust could continue to purchase from the fishermen all their catch 

 exclusive of the prohibited varieties, and probably would do so, so that, 



