92 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



In regard to the organization of a Fisheries Society and a Fisheries 

 Institute, such suggestions have occurred to us many times, but they 

 have not appeared to take any very practical shape. I hope Mr. Feild- 

 ing will start the ball rolling again and that a Fisheries Society 

 and also a Fisheries Institute will be established in Canada, perhaps 

 in connection with the Conservation Commission. I wish to thank per- 

 sonally Mr. Feilding for his exceedingly valuable contribution. 



Mr. Feilding : May I explain one or two things. In my remarits 

 in respect to the close season I was not criticizing the actual periods laid 

 down by the law, but calling attention to the fact that close seasons 

 have an influence on conservation and therefore, when close seasons 

 are provided, that point would naturally be one of the prominent 

 points to consider. I may say that I have done very little work on the 

 Great lakes. What we in Ontario are considering at the moment 

 is the utilization of the vast areas of what we wrongly term inland 

 waters, namely the lesser lakes of our great north-western sections, 

 such as Algoma and Thunder Bay ; nearer, we have lake Simcoe, which 

 is producing practically nothing at the moment. It ought to be a 

 highly productive lake. I feel confident it can produce something 

 once a biological survey has been made. It is useless to pour one 

 particular kind of fish into a lake when we find the water is not suit- 

 able. We have before us an example at Manitou lake, Manitoulin 

 island. It was leased to a syndicate to cultivate whitefish many years 

 ago. It has been a failure from the start up to the present time. I 

 visited it a few weeks ago and looked into it carefully during the 

 short time at my disposal. They do not get any of the big bow- 

 backed whitefish, Coregonus aiba, introduced from lake Erie, there; 

 only a small type of C. clupeiformis is caught. Manitou laice is not 

 suited to the production of large commercial whitefish. So, let us 

 consider, before we concentrate our energies on improving these 

 waters, what fish are most suitable to them. That is really the point I 

 wish to bring out. We want to conserve these lesser waters of whidi 

 we have sole control and which are not being interfered with or 

 participated in by the United States. 



