WHITEFISH IN THE GREAT LAKES

By C. W. GAUTHIER

It was considered desirable to obtain the views of an experienced operator on this subject, and Mr. Gauthier kindly consented to contribute the following article. His views are submitted for consideration.-Editor.

In considering the question of the supply of whitefish in the Great lakes the recommendations made by Frank N. Clark, of the United States Fish Commission, at the International Fisheries Convention held at Washington in September, 1908, are worthy of attention.

Mr. Clark, who

is an expert fish culturist, recommended that from two to five billion whitefish fry be propagated yearly on each side of the Great lakes, and stated that, if this were done, the fish would soon become as abundant as in former years. He also recommended that the present hatcheries be enlarged and new ones having large capacity be built, so that a close season would be practically unnecessary. The artificial propagation and introduction of whitefish into lake Erie and the Detroit river, he said, had increased the catch in recent years. He believed that, if a close season must be enforced, it should be changed from November to July and August, when the water is warm and the fish, consequently, are in poor condition for the market. Hon. Seymour Bowers, of the Michigan Fisheries Commission, Prof. James Nevin, of the Wisconsin Fish Commission, Prof. Downing, of the United States Fish Commission, and the majority of those present agreed with the views above quoted.

The principal causes for the depletion of whitefish in the Great lakes. are (1) The use of large numbers of gill nets set upon the feeding grounds in deep waters, where they catch only the whitefish and trout; (2) the soft fish which frequent the shallow water are not caught in these deep water nets; consequently when the whitefish come into the shallow waters to spawn, these soft fish, such as herring, mullets, pike, perch and pickerel, prey upon the eggs and upon the young whitefish.

The remedy for this depletion is the building of new hatcheries and the enlargement of present hatcheries to make it possible to increase the output to two billions of whitefish fry yearly, for the Great lakes. The use of pound nets should be encouraged because these nets can be set only in shoal waters and will catch large quantities of the aforementioned soft fish and pickerel, which prey upon the whitefish and their eggs. The taking ashore of all fish caught in the pound nets, except immature white

fish, should be made compulsory. The propagation of salmon trout should be discontinued as they are of less commercial value than whitefish and cost ten times more per million to propagate. When trout are mature, they devour the whitefish, both grown and immature.

The Lake Erie and Detroit River whitefish are the finest quality in North America, being the whitest in color and the finest in flavour. For this reason, as much spawn as possible should be collected each year from the fisheries in lake Erie and Detroit river for propagation in the hatcheries to replenish the Great lakes. With proper arrangement several hundred millions of whitefish eggs could be obtained each year. In former years, money has been spent in procuring eggs of inferior quality from the bay of Quinte. These eggs were sent to Sandwich hatchery for propagation, when sufficient eggs of good quality could have been obtained from the Detroit river to have completely filled the Sandwich and Sarnia hatcheries and for less money per million than was spent in obtaining eggs from the bay of Quinte. The amount obtained from the bay of Quinte was so small that the Sarnia hatchery was closed during 1909, and the Sandwich hatchery had to operate at only partial capacity. In three years, 1901, 1902 and 1907, ninety million eggs were sent from the Detroit River fisheries to the Selkirk, Manitoba hatchery, where the whitefish are worth to the fisherman only 3c. per lb., while, according to the reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, they are worth 10c. here. This will show the necessity for the enlargement of our present hatcheries and the establishment of new ones, as the 90,000,000 eggs sent out of the Province were badly needed in Georgian bay. In the years 1897, 1901, 1906 and 1908, eggs were not supplied to the Selkirk hatchery, nor were they supplied to the Berens River hatchery in 1908. So few eggs were provided for the Selkirk hatchery that only 289,000,000 fry was the total output for sixteen years, while the capacity for that time was 1,440,000,000 eggs.

The whitefish of the Great lakes is the most valuable commercial fish in Canada. Those weighing 4 lbs. and upward are sold as high as $25 to $30 per 100 lbs. and are used as planked whitefish. The Department should obtain eggs from the large variety and propagate them for market in large cities. The Department should have the advice of a practical experienced fisherman; one who is thoroughly versed in the various kinds of fish, their habits, the localities which they frequent, the kinds of nets used in the Great lakes and rivers, and the propagation and preservation of the most valued kinds of fresh-water fish. The first consider ation should be the building of hatcheries and the enlargement of old hatcheries, and the systematic gathering of spawn, yearly. The Department has never placed whitefish fry in lake Superior, Georgian bay, or the Manitoulin Island district, and has planted in the southern portion of lake Huron during the past ten years the fry from only 3,000 fish. For the

upper lakes, hatcheries should be established at Port Arthur, Sault Ste. Marie, Collingwood, Owen Sound and Southampton. The hatchery at Wiarton should propagate whitefish eggs only. In the past, this hatchery has propagated salmon trout, the most voracious of fish, which devours both young and mature whitefish.

For lakes Erie and Ontario, hatcheries should be established at Kingsville, and at one or two other places such as Hamilton, Port Hope, Kingston or Belleville.

The writer could this year provide 2,000,000,000 or upwards of whitefish eggs at less than one-half the cost per million, on the average, than has been expended during the past eight years to provide an insufficient quantity for the Sandwich and Sarnia hatcheries.

During the past four years, about 80,000 whitefish have been caught in the bay of Quinte. The rocky and gravel beaches have so injured these fish that only about 185,000,000 eggs were procured instead of the 900,000000 which that number of fish should have yielded. These eggs, taken from fish of the inferior dark-scale variety, were brought at unnecessary expense to the Sandwich hatchery. This surely shows mismanagement, when large quantities of superior quality were obtainable from the Detroit river, at the very doors of the Sandwich hatchery, especially as eggs from an inferior quality fish such as those of lake Ontario should not be planted among the finest quality whitefish in Canada, where they will increase in numbers to the detriment of the superior species. During the same four years, the Department planted in lake Ontario the progeny of less than eight hundred whitefish.

The increased catch of whitefish in recent years in lake Erie and the Detroit river is proof of the benefit of hatcheries, there being no doubt that the increase is the result of the deposit of fry from the Sandwich hatchery. Some lakes show depletion on account of no deposit of fry, while in others the deposit has been so inadequate as to be of little benefit. The amount of fish caught by Americans in lake Erie has been much greater than the amount caught by Canadians. This is partly due to there being fewer restrictions placed on the Americans, and partly to the fact that Americans have propagated and deposited more fry in their fishing grounds.

In order to understand present conditions and the means for remedying the depletion, I beg to give the following figures taken from the Annual Reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries. A comparison of the catch of whitefish shows an increased catch out of lake Winnipeg in 1909. The value of the whitefish to the Winnipeg fishermen is only 3c per lb. All the whitefish that come from lake Winnipeg and lake Winnipegosis are caught in a lake area of about 4,000 square miles, as compared with 36,000