19ia AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 57 



most unwise to allow even one of the many lakes to be depleted of its 

 finer fishes, especially w^hen it is remembered that the depletion is tak- 

 ing place, not for the benefit of citizens of Ontario, but chiefly for that 

 of a neighboring nation, for, as pointed out in previous sections of this 

 report, tlie great bulk of the commercial fish catch is being, and has been, 

 shipped abroad. Moreover, in •such cases where sporting fish exist in 

 these waters, they also have suffered to a like degree as the finer commer- 

 cial fish, in spite of a ban having been, in certain cases, placed on their 

 commercial use, for it is a well known fact that all is fish which comes 

 into the commercial fisherman's net, and a price is paid by the foreign 

 buyer for the interior contents of barrels and boxes laden with fish as 

 well as for the fish which adorn the tops and bottoms of such shipments. 

 The destruction of the sporting fish in these waters is greatly to be de- 

 plored, for it deprives the region of one of its chief attractions to the 

 sportsman tourist, whose ready cash is such a valuable asset to the 

 country at large. 



It is usually argued by those engaged, or v/ishing to engage, in this 

 business that the normal increase in these lakes is, as a rule, in excess of 

 the sustaining or feeding power of the lakes and that, consequently, the 

 majority of fish remain undersized and thin owing to a lack of suflflcient 

 food. It is also, of course, invariably and stoutly maintained that the 

 sporting fish can hj no possible. means suffer any harm through commer- 

 cial fishing operations. As to the latter of these contentions, experience 

 as noted above, has proved the exact reverse. As to the former, it cannot 

 be denied that there may in many instances be a substratum of truth 

 in it, and yet it must also be acknowledged that if the fish now to be 

 found inhabiting the waters after countless years of unimpeded natural 

 reproduction are of such small size and poor quality as alleged, it is 

 difficult to understand how it can be worth anybody's while to under- 

 take commercial fishing for them as a means of profit making or liveli- 

 hood. The probabilities would seem to be that a limited amount of 

 commercial fishing might indeed result in the production of larger fish, 

 owing to the greater amount of food available for a lesser number of fish, 

 but that, on the other hand, the extent of reduction in quantities that 

 can safely be accomplished in the first instance is strictly limited, and 

 that thereafter to take more than the normal increase will result in the 

 speedy depletion of the waters of the classes of fish removed from them. 

 It would, of course, be impossible to lay down rigidly the exact amount 

 of fish that might be removed from any of the lesser lakes for which it 

 might be deemed advisable to issue commercial net licenses, but, on the 

 other hand, it is evident that if the licensees were required to make 

 sworn returns of the catch to tlie Government, the accuracy of the said 

 returns being vouched for and attested by the responsible government 

 inspector, it would very soon become apparent when the annual catch 

 was markedly decreasing. Having once determined that the catch had 

 seriously diminished, it would be a simple matter to give the particular 



