GAME AND FISHERIES FOR 1929 17 



Provision was made for liberal facilities in the museum of Natural Sciences at 

 Buffalo, and the "Shearwater," the boat used, was equipped with fairly adequate 

 laboratory facilities, which permitted a great deal of work to be done on board. 

 Mr. Louden studied the post-larval stages of the fish, their distribution and 

 economic importance, both from the marketable standpoint and as food for 

 other fish. Forty-seven different species of fish were identified and eighty-six 

 stomachs of the different species taken were analyzed for food composition. 



In a summary at the end of his report Mr. Louden makes the following 

 remarks : 



"1. The work of two summers has proven that the lake as a whole is 

 remarkably free from pollution. There are isolated regions, harbours, etc., 

 where pollution does occur, but nowhere in the 'open' lake is objectionable 

 pollution found and the cry of the general populace, that the lake has been 

 polluted by industrial waste, sewage, etc., is absolutely unfounded. 



"2. Knowing that the chemistry of Lake Erie is the normal chemistry of 

 lake water, it is not a surprising feature that plankton is prolifically abundant. 



"Substantiating the findings of the previous summer and extending them 

 over the entire lake, we found that, while the fish supply has diminished, the 

 food supply has not, and that Lake Erie is easily capable of supporting a much 

 larger fish fauna than now exists. 



"3. Why then has there been such a rapid decline in Lake Erie Fisheries? 



"Undoubtedly, the trouble can be traced and is still applicable to the 

 fishermen themselves. I have talked with active and retired fishing boat captains 

 in every port on the lake and with their men, and I find that 80 per cent, of 

 them are honest enough to admit that they have themselves to blame. One 

 has but to listen to accurate tales of tons of fish brought in by a single fishing 

 tug, of which only a small percentage ever reached the market, of the wholesale 

 burning of herring in the early days as a source of fertilizer, and of the long- 

 continued practice of 'capture by any method,' but never think of preservation, 

 to readily see that regardless of its phenomenal productivity, and ideal con- 

 ditions. Lake Erie was doomed. 



"Obviously, the only thing that can save the situation is 'uniform legis- 

 lative action'." 



Uniform Regulations on the Great Lakes: 



Regarding uniform regulations on Lake Erie in particular, and the Great 

 Lakes in general, a third Great Lakes Fisheries Conference was held at Lansing, 

 Michigan, December 5th, 1928, in response to a call issued by Governor Fred 

 \V. Green. Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Fisheries at Washington^ 

 D.C., the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 

 the Department of Game and Fisheries of Ontario and the Department cf 

 Marine and Fisheries of Canada, met in the executive office at Lansing, 

 Michigan, for the purpose of discussing uniform regulations by lakes for the 

 protection of the fishing industry on the Great Lakes. 



The discussion included the following subjects: 



Size limits on fish, species of fish protected, closed seasons, mesh of gill 

 nets, mesh of pound nets, methods of measuring mesh, statistics, reversion 

 of legal weight into legal length after satisfactory biological studies, reviews of 

 biological studies for the year. 



The outcome of these conferences has been the development of a better 

 understanding among the various states of the United States and the Province 



