618 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



In the summer of 1901 I myself visited all the principal fish dealers 

 on Lake Erie, and made as accurate an estimate as possible of the 

 extent of the carp fishery for the calendar year 1900. A number of 

 factors prevent great accuracy in such an inquiry; for example: (a) 

 Some dealers keep no record whatever of the carp handled by them; 

 (7)) others keep record only of their own catch, not recording those 

 bought by them from fishermen; (c) in some cases the carp are weighed 

 in and sold with the suckers, and {d) it sometimes happens in the 

 spring that carp come in faster than they can be handled, when the 

 surplus is weighed up with the refuse, and sent to the fertilizer fac- 

 tories. In spite of this, however, it is felt that the following statistics 

 give a fair estimate of the total amount of carp shipped from Lake 

 Erie in 1900: 



Pounds. 



Detroit, Mich 300, 000 



Monroe, Mich 14, 000 



Toledo, Ohio 432, 548 



Port Clinton, Ohio 2, 361,-723 



Sandusky, Ohio 1, 260, 817 



Total for western end of lake 4, ;369, 088 



Huron, Ohio 14, 168 



Vermilion, Ohio 3, 561 



Lorain, Ohio .*. . 20, 773 



Cleveland, Ohio , 16, 000 



Ashtabula, Ohio 2, 500 



Erie, Pa 12, 000 



Buffalo, N. Y 160, 000 



Total for eastern end of lake 229, 002 



Total for lake 4, 598, 090 



The price paid to fishermen for carp varies from about 30 cents per 

 100 pounds in the spring months to 2^ cents per pound in the winter. 

 Taking 1^ cents per pound as a fair average, the value of the carp 

 catch of 1900 would be $68,971.35. This is an increase of 961,393 

 pounds over the catch of 1899, and an increase of valuation of over 

 $17,000. As nearly as could be judged at the time, the catch for 1901 

 promised to be about as much larger than that of 1900. No accurate 

 statistics have been gathered since that time, but the fishermen say 

 that the fishery is still increasing. 



The number of pounds of carp taken in Lake Erie in 1899 equaled 

 nearly one-sixteenth of the total catch of fish of all kinds in the lake 

 for that year, while the value was about one twenty-second of the 

 entire fisheries product. 



In the Mississippi River and the streams tributary to it, especially 

 in the Illinois River, the carp fisheries are of far greater comparative 

 importance, and for several A^ears carp have constituted over one-half 

 of the total yield of the fisheries of the last-named stream (Townsend, 



