270 KEPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



Pish Hatcheries. . 



In dealing with this question it is taken as an axiom that it is the 

 duty of the state to conserve for the people, and if possible improve, 

 sources of food supply, and that the importance of an abundant supply 

 of fish food ranks second to none. 



Ontario has be^n endowed with exceptional advantages for obtain- 

 ing a liberal supply of fish food, owing to its poisition on the Great Lakes, 

 the magnificent lakes scattered throughout its interior, and its numer- 

 ous rivers and streams; but, owing to many causes, chief of which may 

 be said to be forest deisitruction, pollution, and over-fishing, and the fact 

 that the commercial fishing is practically controlled by a foreign cor- 

 poration, not only are the people of Ontario deprived to-day of an abun- 

 dant supply of cheap fish food, but what is far more serious, the fish 

 food supply of the future is seriously threatened, unles-s immediate steps 

 are taken to counteract existing conditions. When the rapidly-increas- 

 ing population is taken into consideration, and the fact that most of 

 these people come from countries where they have been accustomed to 

 j'ely on cheap fish as one of their principal foods, the importance of the 

 question to the future welfare of the community can be realized. 



In this regard it will not be out of place to quote a passage from 

 the report of the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game of Massachusetts, 

 which very clearly sets forth the reasons for the artificial hatching and 

 rearing of fish : 



" The practice of maintaining and protecting the fisheries of public 

 waters at public expense is of long standing, and is firmly established 

 in well nigh all densely-populated states and countries as both expedient 

 and profitable Two definite methods are in vogue : 



"1. The regulation of fishing for the purpose of protecting the 

 adults, either (a) during the breeding season, or (h) in cases where the 

 demand exceed® the natural supply; either by reducing the number of 

 fish taken during the year, by limiting the catch, or by limiting the 

 number of days upon which fish may be legally taken — i. e., a close 

 season — or, again, by prescribing how and hj what apparatus fish may 

 or may not be taken. 



"2. The artificial hatching and rearing of young fish, and subse- 

 quent stocking of the water by the liberation of fry just hatched or of 

 one- or two-year-old fish. 



" The purpose for which such laws are instituted is absolutely <'or- 

 rect. If the adults of both sexes are not protected, the number of fertile 

 eggs laid is immediately reduced. Then necessarily follows a decrease 

 in the number of the young hatched and a proportionately smaller num- 

 ber of immature fish. Observations indicate that in a natural trout 

 brook, undisturbed by man, an optimum population of all classes of life 

 is established ; enough insect larvre, adult insects, worms, Crustacea, and 

 small fish of various species are present to furnish food for a rather con- 



