1912 AND FISHEKIES COMMISSION. 77 



but on the contrary for a long time was viewed as a nuisance by the 

 fishermen on account of the damage it would do their nets and because, 

 also, white people were prejudiced against its use for food. More often 

 than not the fish, when taken, were knocked on the head and thrown 

 back into the water, or left in heaps on the beach to rot or to be carried 

 oft' by the farmers and used as fertilizer, while during this period, if the 

 fish could be sold at all, they would not bring the fisihermen more than 

 ten cents apiece. In striking contrast to this figure is the record of a 

 sale of 96 sturgeon in 1899 for |3,923, or a little over |40 apiece. About 

 1860 the first efforts were made in the great lake region in the direction 

 of smoking the flesh of the sturgeon, and between that date and 1880 

 the trade in the fish developed in a marvellous fashion, owing to the 

 demand for the smoked flesh and for the bladders, which were manufac- 

 tured into isinglass, but chiefly on account of the great European 

 demand for caviar, reaching in 1880 for the continent a total of nearly 

 12,000,000 pounds of sturgeon products. The following figures show 

 the approximate condition of the trade in sturgeon products of the great 

 lakes from that year onwards : — 



Sturgeon Pboducts of the Great Lake Fisheries. 



Year. Pounds. Value. 



1880 7,557,383 unknown 



1890 4,289,759 $148,360 



1899 1,176,818 111,389 



1903 638,898 53,017 



It may be noted also that Lake St. Clair, which in 1880 produced 

 in the neighborhood of 500,000 pounds, of recent years has furnished 

 never more than 10,000 pounds, while the catch of Lake Erie has fallen 

 to about one sixtieth of its former proportions. That the demand for 

 caviar was mainly responsible for the increased value of the sturgeon 

 Is clearly established by an examination of the comparative price of that 

 material at the various periods. In 1885 caviar brought from |9 to |12 

 per keg of 135 pounds; in 1890 the value had increased to |20; in 1894 

 to |40, and by the end of that decade to flOO, while since that year the 

 price has soared considerably over |1 per pound. So great, indeed, has 

 been the demand that in certain instances the eggs of whitefish have been 

 made use of in an attempt to meet it. 



These figures will be sufficient to show both the present-day com- 

 mercial potentialities of sturgeon fisheries and the lamentable diminu- 

 tion that has occurred in the output in this respect of the great lakes, 

 and to prove also that under economic management these fisheries 

 could have been made a permanent asset of enormous value to their 

 owners. In this connection it is interesting to note that in Russia the 

 sturgeon fisheries are most rigourously protected and afforded a source 

 of considerable revenue to the Government. The leases of the different 

 locations in the Caspian Sea fisheries, whieh are the greatest sturgeon 

 fisheries of that country, are auctioned off every three years, being let 



