7 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
It is obvious from many passages throughout this Report that there is 
abundant work for a permanent Fish Commission appointed under the Ontario 
Government. 
Not only must our knowledge of the geographical distribution, habits, foods 
and enemies of our food-fishes be extended by a systematic survey of our waters, 
but a rigid and effective inspection of the fisheries must be introduced, and mea- 
sures taken to counteract the decline in yield which is otherwise inevitable, 
The establishment of a Provincial Fish Hatchery is one of the most easily arranged 
of these measures, but there are problems of greater difficulty confronting the 
Commission connected with the control of the fisheries themselves. 
‘While there is no difference of opinion as to the desirability of enforcing the 
laws against spearing and other illegal methods of fishing, there is considerable 
divergence as to the respective merits and demerits of pound-nets and gill-nets. 
These have been referred to on p. 464, but it is needless to say that the pound-net 
fishermen exaggerate the faults of the apparatus employed by the gill-net fisher- 
men and wice versu. Unquestionably the multiplication of pounds has done much 
harm in interfering with the inshore migrations of the fish, an altered habit in 
this regard being noted since pounds were common ; the use of small-meshed pots 
is also destructive, on account of the habit of immature Whitefish remaining in 
comparatively shallow water. 
On the other hand drifted or unlifted nets with decaying fish must inevitably 
prove harmful to the fishing grounds, and while on the whole larger fish are 
secured by the gill-nets their condition is not so good as those taken from pounds, 
It must be noted that the same size of mesh in a pound-net and a gill-net 
will secure very different sizes of fish, the meshes in the former being taut, in 
the latter loose, so that escape from the former is much easier than from the latter. 
An impartial consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of both methods 
of fishing will probably lead to the conclusion that both methods of fishing may 
under certain restrictions continue to be prosecuted without danger to the 
Fisheries. 
Apart from rigidly limiting the number of pounds to be permitted, the 
leaders should be controlled in length, a considerable gap left between them and 
the shore, and only a single pot allowed. Above all the mesh of the pot should 
be such that immature whitetish may be able to escape. The general opinion is 
that this may be secured by employing netting for the pot, the mesh of which, 
after the tarring process, stretches to three and a-half- inches. Experts announce 
that the number of whitefish to a barrel has been steadily on the increase of late 
years. If measures such as the above are adopted an improvement in this respect 
would inevitably follow. 
Finatly a strict inspection of pounds is necessary, especially during the close 
season, to prevent fish being pounded until after the season has expired. 
Again, regulations with regard to the renewal of the seaming and of the 
stretching lines of gill-nets would go far to prevent damage done by drifted nets, 
It is probable that an increase in the size of the mesh of the pound-nets might be 
advantageously accompanied by the use of a five-inch mesh for whitetish vill-nets, 
and the imposition of a penalty for possessing or selling nets of illegal size would 
asssist the objects of the Commission. 
43 (C.) 
